Was Lenore based on a real person in the poem "the raven,?"

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2002

Answers

At this point in Poe's life- no. What led him to this was a lifetime of lost women he never really knew. The idealized subject of romantic melancholy was more an artistic conceit, though the feelings beneath it are from his experience. See Poe's dispassionate, disingenuous "The Philosophy of Composition." Virginia was very much alive at this point and everything else long past. Poe used the poetic name "Lenore" or a variation of "Helen" in many stories and poems because he liked the sound, the symbolism, etc. he would often rename or nickname friends and acquaintances based on what he liked and what they meant to him.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2002

I've also read that Poe wrote "The Raven" while his wife, Virgina, was dying (she is represented as Lenore in the poem). He then wrote "Annabel Lee" after her death.

-- Anonymous, October 27, 2004