The Great Poet Edgar Allan Poe - Happy Birthday

I would like to dedicate this hub to the great poet Edgar Allan Poe and to those who experienced romantic love, been hurt and knows what love is, and to those who are "in love" and felt love in any way, present or in the past. I was reading news today (January 19th) when I noticed this one, and I pondered for a moment and remember Edgar Allan Poes beautiful piece “The Raven”-- or many would say “Nevermore” .

In my first year of high school way back in the late 80s, we were required to deliver any piece of poetry, either a speech , poem or self drama to pass the Speech and Drama class and my teacher is an old woman (strict as usual), so I kinda scared actually to deliver a poem and to stand in front of everybody like a dumbass, and my crush would be looking at me. My aunt who lives with us, suggested the piece “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. At a young age, I couldn’t fathom the deeper meaning of it, I was just glad I have delivered it like a pro with matching sadness of emotions that is expected of the poem, but with only eight stanzas because it is too long and I cant memorize the entire piece. I thank the man behind that poem for today is his birthday.

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)

Who wouldn’t know Edgar Allan Poe? From somebody who loves like there is no tomorrow and who loves and can never forget, --  The Raven  --  a piece of Poe is surely a hit.

Edgar Allan Poe is a great poet, short story writer, editor, literary critic, and is into horror fiction, gothic romance, crime fiction, detective fiction, comedy, satire, and of course in the age of Romanticism. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts to both artists (Elizabeth and David Poe Jr.), on January 19, 1809 and died forty years later. His father abandoned their family in 1810, and his mother died a year later Poe was then taken into the home of John Allan, a successful Scottish merchant in Virginia, who dealt in a variety of goods including tobacco, cloth, wheat, tombstones, and slaves. The Allans served as a foster family but never formally adopted Poe, and they gave him the name "Edgar Allan Poe".

Why I like the Poet

I like Edgar Allan Poe, I read some of his works, it is all sad by the way, mysterious and deep provoking thoughts are all embed in his works, stories, poem etc., and it makes you wonder how he likes to impart sadness or whether he lives by it. I am just wondering how can I smile and infect him with life which is beautiful (we live in different time) or did he ever experience to smile and have a life, maybe he did, we will never know. I wonder if an author should be so much into their feelings and then should share what they are thinking or they have the power to make us sad and look beyond. Does an author have to be so much involved with his writings and whether he is depicting himself at all? Does he need to write timely pieces or he could imagine and dealt beyond time.

His poem "The Raven"

“The Raven” is composed of 18 stanzas and there are six lines in each, nevermore is the word you can see in each last lines in every stanza.

My interpretation of the poem “The Raven”

• It is sad, lonely and use allegory to depict the bird raven as a “bird” to depict death and can speak too. Death and loving immortality is the main theme of the poem.
• The man welcomes the raven, and is afraid that the raven will be gone in the morning, Hopes have flown before"; however, the raven answers, "Nevermore." The man smiled, and pulled up a chair, interested in what the raven "meant in croaking, ---- ‘Nevermore.’" The chair, where Lenore once sat -- (Leonore is the dead wife of Poe), and suddenly it brought back painful memories and the man, who knows the irrational nature in the raven’s speech, still cannot help but ask the raven questions. The man is aware that the raven only knows one word, he can anticipate the bird's responses. "Is there balm in Gilead?" - "Nevermore." Can Lenore be found in paradise? ------- "Nevermore." "Take thy form from off my door!" ------ "Nevermore." Finally the man concedes, realizing that to continue this dialogue would be pointless. And his "soul from out that shadow" that the raven throws on the floor, "Shall be lifted --- Nevermore!"

Thank you and I hope I did justice to the man who affects even the "stone" in us.

The Raven (first two stanzas)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.