High School In Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven

About four years ago, I was just starting my first year of high school. During my previous tenure in middle school, I was basically an average student with multiple C’s and barely passing classes. So when I entered high school, I was not that enthusiastic about it and I continued the trend of not really caring about my grades in the 9th grade. As I became more aware of the opportunities I could get by receiving good grades, I began to actually care more about school and tried to get good grades. I began to do something that I never did before,

With college approaching rapidly, procrastination will be a problem for many incoming freshman; however, in the article, Hansen says, “Don’t procrastinate; prioritize your life.”

Example: “Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary (1); rare and radiant maiden (11); And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain (notice the deft use of consonance as well) (13); Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, / Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before (19-20)”.

In his youth, Edgar Allan Poe was a very creative man; he was the first writer to create a detective storyline. He originally wrote a short story titled The Murders in the Rue Morgue which he would later follow with two other stories similar in theme. These stories would be studied for years to come, unbeknownst to Poe himself. He often incorporated the human psyche, another one of his original ideas he incorporated into his work. None of these works, however, would see Poe famous. What would bring him fame would be The Raven, arguably his best and most famous work of all. Eventually, The Raven would become his nickname and people by the masses would gather to see Poe perform renditions of this piece. However, Poe’s life was not full of fame

The poem, “The Raven,” written by Edgar Allen Poe shows the deep depression and confusion that the narrator is experiencing since the death of his beloved wife. The gloomy setting of the poem predicts the visit of the Raven, whom is a sign of misfortune, darkness, and death. Throughout the poem, the narrator is continually mourning his wife, Lenore. He secretly hopes that the Raven will bring good news regarding his wife and his future; however, the Raven informs him that he will forever remain depressed. Furthermore, Poe uses setting, strong word choice, and symbolism to illustrate the Raven as the messenger of darkness and explain the narrator’s emotional state.

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced was improving my prioritization of my school assignments. I’ve been somewhat of a slacker student as I procrastinated almost every time I was assigned homework, I would often do it the day it was due. However whenever I didn’t finish the assignment, I wouldn’t feel much regret as I thought one assignment wouldn't mean a thing to my grade. I kept on with this pattern through freshman year but then by sophomore year, my antics caught up with me. I had almost 5 missing assignments, a D in my Math III class, and I had almost all C’s by the end of that year. I was devastated; it was the first time I ever received a grade below a C in my entire life and most of all I was disappointed in myself and my mistakes.

Romanticism: “A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual” (dictionary.)

In the essay “How to help students avoid Procrastination” submitted by Steven J. Corbett and Michelle LaFrance. States who’s prone to procrastination, ways in which students procrastinate, as well as effective ways in which we can combat them. In most educational settings students suffer from procrastination without knowing how to fix the issue. For instance, the professors state “At least once a semester, one of us will receive a last-minute email from a student with a question that, had the student been working on a project in advance, he/she would have asked before the deadline” (1). They claim a lot of this is a result of supercharged emotions

High school is a teenager’s best years of socialization. However, they are also some of the most stressful. The work piled on by teachers can be overwhelming for anyone, even a straight-A student. Unfortunately, a large quantity of homework is not the only thing wrong with the system in American society today. High school students face many struggles and difficulties while engaged in their education.

A great deal of students don’t develop effective study habits and this ultimately results in feeling a decreased sense of self-esteem, stress, disorganisation, poor academic success, and a negative sense of self-efficacy which is linked to poor self-control (Pychyl & Dann, 2010). This is primarily caused by procrastinating. Procrastination is delaying an activity that possesses important benefits for us in the long-term but is voluntarily delayed in the short-term because of short-term impulsive temptations which offer greater immediate rewards (Steel, 2007). I chose to modify this problematic target behaviour because it was where I exercised poor self-control.

Before I could understand the meaning of GPA and A’s and B’s from C’s and D’s, I knew this: the better I was in school and on tests, the prouder my parents were. In elementary school, I vied for their attention and swore that I’d achieve it so that by the following year, they would become interested in my schoolwork, go to school on the days parents were invited, and volunteer to supervise for all my field trips. But even when I showed them my report card, their smiles faded within moments, and I would still see them for only a few hours the next day. By the time middle school approached, I was disillusioned. I was beginning to feel horrible at home, not feeling good enough compared to my parents’ careers, which always managed to retain their attentions.

Edgar Allan Poe is a writer, critic, and editor but is best known for being a poet. When Poe was about a year old, his father left him and his family. A year after his father left, his mother died of Tuberculosis or TB. When Poe was about twenty-six years’ old, he married his beautiful thirteen-year-old cousin. Twelve years after they married, his wife dies of Tuberculosis as well. An interesting fact is that “The Raven” is written before his wife dies. Poe writes in “The Raven” that the narrator is “weak and weary” (688, line 1). The loss of the narrator’s wife is possibly how Poe will feel when he loses his wife. The most powerful topic in the poetry world is death of a beautiful woman. Though Poe had a hard life, he tried to overcome what he had been through and was not able figure out how to unless it was through writing.

I have spent multiple hours, working on this paper. This assignment has take all of the free time outside of sports, eating, and drinking in my life. I haven’t had much family time, because I have to be away from distractions and write. I have sat in my room, and heard at least a 1,000 new songs. I have began to feel like Odysseus when Calypso trapped him for 7 years on her island. My parents have started to asking about my grades because I spend so much time in my room doing “homework”, as I tell them. Really all I have been doing is this paper. I have ran out on songs to listen to as I am writing, just making this essay take more time. As I write this paper this assignment increasingly becomes harder. The time this essay is taking is the main reason I believe this to be the worst thing of my Freshman

In the first day of high school, I began a new chapter in my life. I must say, the transition from Junior High to High School has been quite challenging for myself. Since the beginning of this new chapter, I have been forced to overcome many challenges that I never had to deal with in my junior high school such as the sheer volume of homework, disinterest in certain subject areas, and an ineffective use of time throughout all of my core subjects. However, I never gave up on myself and continued to improve my study habits and time management skills while motivating myself at the same time to never stop improving in spite of setbacks and downfalls I may have experienced in the past 2 months. By the same token, I knew that today hard work will

As I am skimming through the numbers etched on my report card, I am disappointed by the decrease in my grades, and the reason is not ambiguous to me. The age of adolescence is a time where teenagers are exposed to development and it is also an age where they become vulnerable to the first negative streaks of reality. The disintegration of my parents’ marriage contributed to my lowered grades. My natural love for my parents couldn’t accept their relationship falling apart, and this led to a distraction from studies and an inability to concentrate on things. I viewed “parents” as a singular entity, if they separated, that single entity would have been shattered. I understand however, that I should have been motivated nonetheless.