What is the title of E.A. Poe's last poem? What does the Raven symbolize? What was the title of the book of poems when Virginia died?

-- Anonymous, September 05, 2002

Answers

It seems to me the last poem he was handing about before his death was "Annabel Lee." It certainly was the last poem of his opus to be published and that posthumously.

Poe himself in "The Philosophy of Composition" states that the bird is an "emblem" of a neverending and mournful remembrance. Not so much a personage as a state of experience, of mind and soul that cannot shake off the memories of the deceased- as much as he might want closure or confort.

I am not entirely sure of what poem anthology you are referring to.

-- Anonymous, September 06, 2002