Poetry PDF EPUB Audio

The Raven, and The Philosophy of Composition

Downloads: Under 100
Pages: 36

Read online EPUB Download Save

Listen to The Raven, and The Philosophy of Composition Audiobook Free

Read by David Wales · 42 min · 3 parts

Open the player

Foreword
2:08
The Philosophy Of Composition
31:43
The Raven
9:01

The Raven, and The Philosophy of Composition (1906) is a public domain work.

The audio edition streams in the page. There is no audio file to download.

Browse all free audiobooks

About this book

A grieving lover, a remembered woman named Lenore and a speaking bird give Edgar Allan Poe material for both verse and literary argument. This volume pairs The Raven with an essay in which Poe explains how he says he planned the poem. He begins with the impression a work should leave, then considers its length and the value of reading it in a single sitting. The result puts an account of artistic decisions beside the poem those decisions are meant to explain.

The essay becomes especially concrete when Poe discusses the arrangement of lines, rhyme and alliteration. He describes choosing a richly furnished chamber filled with memories, and using the bird's arrival to create a mistaken impression of tapping at a door. Readers interested in writing can examine how setting, sound and pacing contribute to a concentrated emotional effect. The pairing also offers a way to compare a poem's atmosphere with its author's account of deliberate construction.

About the author

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as one of the central figures of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States and of early American literature.