What are some similarities of Poe's poems The Raven, The Sleeper and Lenore? Are there gothic elements in The Sleeper/

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2002

Answers

As he said in his "The Philosophy of Composition" the highest theme is the melancholy aroused by the death of a young and beautiful woman. Poe's peculiar treatment is seen three variations in these three poems. The woman(Lenore in two poems) is departed and the poet argues forcefully for her as a sign of Hope among the angels and would deny conventional mourning or the cold separation of death. The Sleeper is also another attempted denial of the horrors and separation of death. In all of these of course death and horror still lurk beyond this attempt to idealize the dead. lenore is a complete denial, like Annabel Lee and a rebellion against mourning. The Sleeper is an attempt to freeze frame the moment of death, to put death in a stasis like sleep so that the memory, the beauty can exist in an eternal moment(like the suspended worlds of The City in the Sea, Silence a Parable, etc.). In the Raven the lover suffers complete defeat in a hopeless dialogue with the intermediary raven. In none of the poems does the poet communicate with his lost beloved though he projects his hope very strongly but the sense of presence he sometimes achieves is less than satisfying, usually silent and oppressive despite the happiness of the memories.

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2002