The Theme of Love and Death in The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Love and Death are the primary obsessions of human society. Love is an intense feeling of deep affection, while death is the permanent cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living, physical organism. Love and Death are the principle fixations of Edgar Allan Poe’s poems “To Helen”, “Lenore”, and “The Raven”. In the poems “To Helen”, “Lenore”, and “The Raven” Poe investigates the loss of ideal beauty and the difficulty in regaining it, but these works do not reach the same conclusion. “To Helen” is a three-stanza poem in which the speaker's beloved is a personification of the epitome of beauty, Helen of Troy. In “Lenore” Poe showcases that true love transcends death. In “The Raven”, the speaker continues to torture himself by asking an ominous raven repeatedly if he will ever be reunited with his dead beloved. This essay analyzes how in the poems “To Helen”, “Lenore”, and “The Raven” Poe investigates the loss of ideal beauty and the difficulty in regaining it, but all three of these poems take a different approach to how they depict the subjects of love and death. Yet, Poe is still able to convey a unified conception in all three poems through the use of literary devices.

One of the most crucial traits related to the theme of love in “To Helen” is the use of allusions in the language, the speaker uses allusions to highlight the immense love he has for his beloved. The first stanza of the poem begins with the speaker referring to his beloved as Helen, “Helen, thy beauty is to me”. In referring to his inamorata as Helen, the speaker is alluding to Helen of Troy who is considered to be the most beautiful woman who ever lived according to the goddess, Venus in the myth referred to as The Judgement of Paris. Helen of Troy was 'the face that launched a thousand ships' such as the 'Nicean barks' of the poem. The speaker referring to his beloved as Helen reinforces her beauty and further emphasizes that his beloved is the epitome of the ideal woman. Another allusion that expresses the speaker's love is used in line seventeen. The speaker states, “The agate lamp within thy hand, Ah! Psyche from the regions which”. The agate lamp is also another classical allusion. In Metamorphoses, it was Psyche, the embodiment of the spirit, who conveyed such an agate lamp. She stirred the resting Eros when a drop of oil from her light fell on him as he dozed. The speaker is stating that like Psyche, Helen has allowed him to appreciate the beauty and awakened his ability for affection. In addition to the use of allusions, the techniques of metaphorical language and alliteration are also implemented to highlight the immense love the speaker feels for Helen.

A vital element that adds to the development of the theme of love is the use of alliterations and metaphorical language. An alliteration that describes the speaker's love for Helen is stated in line five. The speaker states, “The weary, way-worn wanderer bore to his own native shore”.

The “weary, way-worn wanderer”, is an alliteration, it might allude to Odysseus, who, after the Trojan war was finished, made the long and significant adventure home to his wife Penelope. The speaker may likewise allude to himself as the 'weary, way-worn wanderer' who has returned home, due to his love for Helen, or because he is attracted to Helen's extraordinary beauty. In addition to alliterations, there are also numerous metaphors that describe the narrator's love for the speaker. In lines seven and eight the speaker states, “Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, Thy Naiad airs have brought me home/To the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome”. Helen's 'hyacinth hair' and her 'classic face' fortifies the feeling of her Hellenic beauty. The Naiads were a type of female spirit based out of Greek mythology. They resided in the waters and are known to display incredibly lovely faces. The way that Helen's beauty has brought the speaker home to Greece and Rome proposes not just that he has been helped to remember the enchantment and magnificence of traditional civilization through her but that he perceives her as the support of all Western civilization which is also referring to himself. Similarly to Poe's poem “To Helen”, his poem “Lenore” also uses literary devices to highlight the theme of love.

One of the most crucial traits related to the theme of love in “Lenore” is the use of repetition and hyperboles in the language, the speaker uses repetition and hyperboles to emphasize the immense love he feels for his dead inamorata. The first stanza of the poem ends with the speaker repeating that his beloved died at a very young age. The speaker states, “An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young — A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young”. The frequent repetition of the phrase 'died so young' highlights that the speaker is melancholy that Lenore has passed at such a young age. This repetition also emphasizes that the narrator loved Lenore's youthfulness. Additionally, hyperboles are also used to highlight the speaker's love for Lenore. A hyperbole is used in stanza four when the speaker states, “From grief and groan to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven”. Throughout the poem, it is stated that Lenore was an extremely beautiful woman who tragically died at a young age. Guy de Vere, however, describes her beauty, and her rise to heaven, in a hyperbolic fashion. The fact that De Vere constantly describes Lenore in such a loving way and continues to defend her reputation despite her death shows that he truly loves her. In addition, the poems structure and allusions are also used to highlight the theme of death.

The structure of the poem and allusions within the text are used to highlight the theme of death. Edgar Allan Poe uses internal rhyme to highlight the theme of death. The speaker states “For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies, The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes — The life still there, upon her hair--the death upon her eyes.” The poem utilizes a rhyme scheme that features couplets. The last three lines of each stanza in the poem form a triplet, in order to highlight the words 'young,' 'eyes,' and 'Heaven,”. The emphasis on these specific words highlights the melancholy and sorrow of Guy De Vere. The speaker also uses allusions to highlight the theme of death. In line two the speaker states, “a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river”. This is a reference to the River Styx, one of the rivers that flowed through the underworld of Greek mythology. Only those who had pure (saintly) souls could cross the river to Elysium (heaven) once they had died. In both the poems “To Helen” and “Lenore” the respective speakers use a variety of literary devices to highlight the love they feel for their inamoratas. But the poem “Lenore”, unlike “To Helen”, also uses literary devices to highlight the theme of death. In “Lenore”, the dead beloved is seen through the eyes of her male living lover and consequently comes to embody the pinnacle of beauty and perfection in her death, but in “To Helen”, Helen is alive and is the epitome of beauty through her lovers’ eyes. Similarly to Poe's poems “To Helen” and “Lenore”, “The Raven” also uses literary devices to highlight the central themes of love and death.

As with many other of Poe’s works such as “Lenore”, “The Raven” also explores the theme of death through the use of repetition. The poem uses repetition to highlight the sorrow the speaker feels due to the passing of Lenore. Throughout the poem, the speaker constantly repeats the name, Lenore.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;

But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,

And the only word there was spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!” —

Merely this and nothing more.

When the speaker repeats the name Lenore into the darkness, he understands that the sole center of his enduring was really Lenore and he needed to open that entryway of his self-uncertainty and shortcoming to make sense of it. The speaker also reveals the extent of his depression by whispering the name Lenore and how his loss so affected him. In addition to lines thirty to thirty-six, repetition of the “nevermore” is also used in the last line of every stanza to express how gravely Lenore’s death has affected the speaker. The speaker states, “It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angel's name Lenore — Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angel's name Lenore/Quoth the Raven Nevermore”. The Speaker is spiraling into more confusion as he understands he is stuck in this agony and no alleviation is coming to his direction. In franticness, he asks whether he will ever hold and grasp his cherished Lenore until the end of time. The raven disparagingly replies no. The speaker has been crushed by his emotions in the wake of confronting them, as he realizes that he will never be reunited with Lenore which causes him great sorrow. In addition to repetition, the use of symbolism and poetic structure is also used to highlight the sorrow the speaker feels now that his beloved Lenore is dead.

The poem uses poetic structure and symbolism to highlight the sorrow the speaker feels now that his beloved Lenore is dead. Poe uses emphasizes specific sounds and a specific rhyme scheme to highlight the theme. The speaker states, “On this home by Horror haunted — tell me truly, I implore — Is there — is there balm in Gilead? — tell me — tell me, I implore!/ Quoth the Raven “Nevermore”.Poe stresses the 'O' sound in words, for example, 'Lenore' and 'nevermore' so as to underline the sorrow and melancholy of the speaker. Poe utilizes words that rhyme with 'more' all through every stanza to unify the poem and highlight the central theme of death. In addition to the poetic structure, symbolization through the use of the raven is also used to express how gravely Lenore’s death has affected the speaker. The speaker states, “Is there — is there balm in Gilead? — tell me — tell me, I implore Quoth the Raven Nevermore”.

The Raven represents the personification of death itself and serves as a reminder of the loss of the narrator and his imminent destiny. The entirety of the text explores the metaphorical death of hope and demise caused by the death of Lenore. The Raven symbolizes the human tendency to self-torture. The narrator keeps asking the Raven questions that he knows the bird will respond negatively so that he can continue to feel sorrow and long for Lenore. Although both the poems 'Lenore' and 'The Raven' feature a deceased woman named Lenore, the narrator in 'Lenore,' when confronted with the loss of the love of his beloved, reassures himself with the prospect of seeing her again in heaven. The narrator, however, surrenders himself in 'The Raven' to believe he will never meet Lenore again.

In the poems “To Helen”, “Lenore”, and “The Raven” Edgar Allan Poe investigates the loss of ideal beauty and the difficulty in regaining it, but all three of these poems take a different approach to how they depict the subjects of love and death. Yet, Poe is still able to convey a unified conception in all three poems through the use of literary devices. “To Helen” is a three-stanza poem in which the speaker's beloved is a personification of the epitome of beauty, Helen of Troy. In “Lenore” Poe showcases that true love transcends death. In “The Raven,” the speaker continues to torture himself by asking an ominous raven repeatedly if he will ever be reunited with his dead beloved. Love and death are often intertwined and will continue to remain the primary fixation of society.