"The Raven"'s Lenore and the poem Lenore, any links.

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Does the dead Lenore in "the Raven" has anything to do with Poe's poem "Lenore"? Is it the same person(s)?

Hope you can answer it!

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001

Answers

I'm not totally sure, but I think there is. In "Annabel Lee" he's talking about Virginia, his wife, so there's a good chance he's talking about her there too, since he never really fully recovered from her death. In "The Raven" the main character cries to the raven and himself to forget his lost Lenore, and "Quoth the Raven 'Nevermore'." In "Lenore" he speaks of a beautiful woman who died very young (his wife died at 24) so it's probably not just a coincidence. Strangely, also, in "Lenore", the narrator says "Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride,/ And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her-that she died!", while in A Paean, the narrator says "They loved her for her wealth-/ And they hated her for her pride-/ But she grew in feeble health, / And they lover her-that she died." Now, I really don't know about that...but it's cool to think about. Virginia really wasn't wealthy...her family was quite poor, but they supported Edgar, his brother William, their grandmother, and themselves, all by Mrs. Clemm. He could be speaking about his mother, a beautiful actress...but I guess you'll have to ask someone else about that!

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001

Poe used a lot of variations of certain names that meant one or more things to him. Helen, Ellen, Elinor, Lenore, Leonora are all variations of the classical ideal woman and have a nice sound as well. Helen of troy, Helen Stanton, girl friends, etc. Usher used to be an acting couple who worked with Poe's mother(of which he probably only knew a bit from old poster mementos. With his love of codes and anagrams a lot of Poe's chosen names are not accidental, though some might be subconscious patterns from powerful memories.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

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