Customer Reviews

The Raven And Other Poems (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Scholastic Classics)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book of poems is really the best book of poems I have ever read!!! The introduction to this book is very touching but the poem "The Raven" took my breath away! I couldn't believe that such a poem can make me feel this way!!!

...while I pondered weak and weary over many a quant and curious volume of forgotten lore..."
Who can't pass up the mystique and somber terror of one Poe's poems? Don't deny yourself this chance at book full of great literature. Poe might have had a troubled life but his life's work was, and still is, incredible.

What can I say of "The Raven" that has not been said? Beauty and sadness, grief and romance. "Annabel Lee" is like it, and "Ulalume" will bend your heart to weeping. These aren't the only poems here, but they are among the reasons you will reread this small volume of poetry.

Lamenting the loss of a gentle but passionate woman, the narrator drinks, yet somberly dwells on her name. A local raven, with the capacity to utter like a parrot a syllable or two, repeats the speaker's chant "Lenore," as "Nevermore." The narrator, tired and broken, believes the raven might be sent by God or even by the Devil, and tries talking with it.

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.
"'T is some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door;
Only this and nothing more."

The poem, like a long tale, draws the listener or reader to be in that lonely room.

Anyone who has ever been in love and lost that lover will known Poe's pain and supplication of God.

Similar to the Raven in its message is "Annabel Lee," as the poet declares his grief over his lost lover. This love here is one he knew as a young teen, and whose love even the angels were jealous of.

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

Slightly lesser known is "Ulalume." It will remind readers of "The Raven," in its storytelling structure, though the poetry behind it is somewhat different. Like many of Poe's poetry, rhythm, alliteration and near internal rhymes lift the poem up high. It is somber, driven by gray images of sadness.

The Skies they were ashen and sober;
The leaves they were crispèd and sere,
The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
Of my most immemorial year;
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
In the misty mid region of Weir:
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

I fully recommend "The Raven And Other Poems," by Edgar Allan Poe, and look into a fuller collection including his stories, and more poetry.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

This is one of the many poems by Edgar Allan Poe. It is a very good poem but at first I didn't really understand it. It took awhile before I fully understood it even after I had been told the main idea. In this poem raven represents death. What I believe that that the man in this poem is going to die and death is tapping at his door. This poem uses lots of figurative speech and it makes it sound very pretty. Such as "Prophet!,' said I, 'Thing of evil! Prophet still if bird or devil! Whether Tempter sent or tossed thee here ashore, Desolate ye tall undaunted, On this home by horror haunted-tell me truly, I implore- Is there balm in Gilead?- tell me- tell me I implore!' Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore." It would be a good idea to read The Raven.

From the editor of the Hoppin Readin Review on Blogspot

Many reknown Literary Critics who live in "Intellectual Ivory Towers" consider this collection of poems to be a so called "Classic". I however tend to disagree with them and unless I woke up in Russia or Communist China this morning I believe I have every right to exercise my Freedom Of Speech. My least favourite poem in this book would have to be "The Raven". Perhaps one can understand the erratic meter of this poem when one learns that it was written in one hour in a cocaine induced frenzy. Sadly Writing and Substance Abuse are not a good combination. I give this book 5 stars because so many people are under the impression that Edgar Allen Poe was a genius instead of a drug addled illicit substance abuser.