Page 19 - DENG202_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_III

Elective English—III

Notes central character wander in nature and learn something about their deepest thoughts. For example,
just like the narrator of Ulalume, who roams in a wood and unintentionally reaches to his
beloved’s tomb. Poe also views cities in negative manner; The City in the Sea finally sinks into
hell after wasting away under the impact of personified death.

The Human Imagination

Poe focus on the competences of the human mind most openly in Sonnet - To Science, where the
narrator poet grieves that the deadening effect of modern science has constrained the power of
imagination. Still, he has the aesthetic principles of human creativity and means to several
mythological characters in his assertion that the capability to imagine is at the centre of humanity’s
identity. On the contrary, other poems deal with the imagination in a rather dissimilar manner,
presenting the risks of the imagination when not strengthened by a sense of reality. The narrator
of The Raven represents this behaviour, though he initially attempts to describe the possibly
unearthly phenomenon of the raven via rational measures. He finally ignores his rational mind
in his grief and misery and comes to treat the raven as an emotional being and hence, supernatural
messenger.

Hope and Despair

By enlisting his characters in situations of loss and regret, Poe explores the variety of human
emotions such as despair and hope with his writings. On the one hand, poems such as The
Conqueror Worm and The Raven mainly endorse despair. In the latter work, the narrator’s words
become more and more agitated, and he screams uselessly at the raven. This state of being
contrasts profoundly with the more hopeful ending of Eldorado. In this, the “pilgrim shadow”
tells the elderly knight that he needs to venture boldly into the Valley of the Shadow to
accomplish his objective and therefore, offer the knight a potential end to his life-long quest.
However, even this suggestion of hope has dark feelings since it suggests that the knight will be
condemned to search for the rest of his life. In addition, he ought to ride into death to fulfil his
quest.

2.7 A Dream within a Dream – Poem

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! Yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!

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