Who is Lenore? Excuse my ignorance. Is she a real person? Someone he lost?

-- Anonymous, September 11, 2003

Answers

Lenore is someone he lost. Lenore was his first wife. But she died and now he married hios cousin.

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2003

Lenore was a sonorous name used by other Romantic poets. It sounded the right melancholic and langorous beauty notes. The actiual "Lenore" is also only figurative even if drawing from emotional experiences involving tragic stories of women in his life. In "The Raven" his wife was still alive but getting sick. It might betoken prophetic worry but he had used the theme often before.

Many of his poems are stories whose themes are personal but whose details and characters are pure fiction. Yeats made the same comment about his "women" and the female characters in his poems.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2003

In all acuality poe was only married once. He never married his childhood sweetheart. It is believed that the poem was written about his cousin and wife virginia who was showing signs of serious illness (she died of t.b). the poem was a collection of all his fears and premonotions. The raven was written years after in asortof reflection of her death.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2004