Blog Post 2: Response to "The Raven"

Why do you suppose Poe's narrative poem, "The Raven", has stood the test of time? What do people find so frighting about this poem 166 years after it was first published?


I think "The Raven" has been able to remain frightening to people over 166 years because of the word choice that is used. People nowadays have a much different vocabulary than people did 166 years ago. The strong and complicated language that is used in the poem is extremely descriptive; therefore it is easy to frighten the readers today. I think that the deep, horrific descriptions in the poem such as “And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming” are what make the poem frightening, even 166 years later. Edgar Allan Poe is very able to create a scary image in the readers’ heads with his strong descriptions. If the author’s descriptions had been weaker easier to understand, they wouldn’t be as frightening. The fact that his descriptions are so complicated that the reader has to stop to think about what they mean, and then as they figure it out, it creates a haunting image in their head.

       I also think that the topic of the poem is what helps the poem remain frightening to people as time passes. One of the scariest things, in my opinion, is insanity. The thought of the man literally going insane because of the bird’s repetitiveness is actually very disturbing. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through what the man in the poem did, and that’s what makes it frightening for me. No matter what time period it is, people will always be disturbed by the thought of going crazy, so that’s why the poem is still frightening today.