The Raven is an example of what kind of poem?

How many beats are there per line in the poem the raven?

Find one example of allusion in The Raven

-- Anonymous, October 27, 2002

Answers

Generally a ballad that develops a refrain around the Raven's utterance "Nevermore". Octosyllablic lines or segments with alternating stresses or beats in singsong fashion. The beat theory as opposed to classical(Greco-Roman poetry) stresses and measures better describes Anglo-Saxon rhythms where alliteration and driving power is more important than rhyme or strict syllable count. "Quoth the Raven: Nevermore." has seven syllables but works just as well with its accented beats, its brevity punctuating grimly the dramatic mood.

"bust of Pallas"(Athena-wisdom, moon, knowledge, mind- sponsor of Ulysses) is interesting because it refers back to a possible alternate in bird choice. Athena's pet is the owl, a bird already taken by other poets however and with a different and rather limited vocabulary. Even so the allusion to the search for knowledge and the glum unsatisfying answer is plain as the lifeless bust and the discouraging visitor cast their endless shadow over the floored searcher fixing the symbolism that Poe himself described as a "mournful and neverending remembrance"(The Philosophy of Composition).

Demon bird, I implore thee! Who's on first? Tell me true! The owl thus answered: "Who-who-who."

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2002

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-- Anonymous, October 31, 2002