Allusions In The Raven

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Recommended: Literary criticism of poe on the raven

Many poets use different literary devices in poems to express their ideas and thoughts in an artistic way. Edgar Allan Poe uses allusions in “The Raven” to help the reader visualize concepts. The narrator wants the raven to tell him “what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore” while they sit in his room during the late evening (48). Plutonian refers to Pluto, a Greek and Roman god to the underworld. Poe’s reference to Pluto delivers the feeling of a dark, mysterious underworld to the readers to help visualize the setting and mood of the poem. While the narrator tries to cope with the loss of his love, Lenore, he asks the raven “is there balm in Gilead? –tell me–tell me, I implore!” (89). Balm in Gilead, an ointment used to treat …show more content…

The jar symbolizes humans and their controlling relationship with nature. After the narrator places the jar on the hill, “it made the slovenly wilderness surround that hill” (795). Stevens description of the wilderness as messy and dirty but the jar making it surround a hill symbolizes the control that humans have over shaping nature. In response to the orders of the jar, “the wilderness rose up to it, and sprawled around” (5-6). The wilderness rising up illustrates how much bigger nature is compared to humanity and its objection to being tamed. Nature desires to be free and relaxed whereas humans want to have control over it and have everything look organized. Stevens depicts the jaw as taking “dominion everywhere” and “gray and bare” (9-10). Just like humans, the jar rules over the wilderness and makes everything gray and bare in comparison of the life nature gives the world. The jar symbolizes how humans destroy nature in order to make buildings for housing, work, and life in general. Destroying the world of nature around humanity comes with consequences such as no longer having a colorful, bright world filled with life and beauty that is found in nature. Stevens use of symbolism in “Anecdote of the Jar” allows the reader to understand a deeper meaning of the poem in an artistic

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