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Edgar Allan Poe Quotes About Death

Decent Essays

“Mors ultima linea rerum est” (“Latin Quotes about Death”): this quote from Horace perfectly sums up the theme of the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe suffered much loss throughout his life—first with the loss of his mother, then his adopted mother, his first love, and finally his wife—thus explaining why Poe commonly uses death as a theme in his works. Poe also commonly writes about women and youth, with the presence of death bringing a depressing and ominous undertone. Death exists in the happiest and saddest of subjects. “The Bells,” which judging by the first two sections the reader can assume will be a celebration of life, turns into a chaotic and then solemn story of death. “Annabel Lee,” which also begins in a light and happy mood, …show more content…

Unlike “Annabel Lee,” “The Raven” tells of “a lost love and the narrator’s inability, or unwillingness, to shed his romantic melancholia” (Magistrale 40). The narrator of “The Raven” holds on to his grief and sees death as a barrier “currently separating [him] from the lost Lenore” (Magistrale 46). The reader then begins to also see death as barrier and can feel the same sadness that the narrator himself is feeling. The bird brings about mixed feelings within the narrator. At first, the bird amuses the narrator , but quickly frustrates him when the bird’s only responds “nevermore”: the narrator “wonders if he will reencounter [Lenore] in the afterlife, and finally if the narrator himself will ever find peace in her absence. To each of these questions the bird’s consistent reply infuriates him at the same time as it deepens his sense of loss” (Magistrale 39-40). This questioning of life after-death can make a reader feel quite crestfallen as it can make him or her wonder whether or not he or she will see a loved one again. “The raven has always been a bad omen…At the conclusion of this poem, we are to believe that the raven has become a permanent resident of the poet’s chamber and soul” (Magistrale 40-1): the raven never leaves the poet similar to how death lurks always creating a dark feeling within the

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