"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe

"Imagine if you will a young man - a man heartbroken by loss ..."

For the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth, a recent performance of the memorized "Raven," which I've been using for my "Creepy Classics" storytimes for about 10 years. This is from Oct. 29, 2008, at Helen Plum Library in Lombard, IL. Video by Jennifer Amling.

The wording changes, but I generally introduce it something like this:

"Imagine if you will a young man - a man heartbroken by loss, who has tried to read himself to sleep, to forget, with the help of his books, his lost love. Perhaps he dozes, and perhaps he has uneasy dreams, for the knock at the door startles him, scares him, more than it would you or me. Perhaps he fears this is a ghost at his door ... but it is just a bird. A great, dark bird seeking shelter from a stormy night.

"And this bird speaks to him. It says a word (or makes a noise he thinks is a word - that is up to you) over and over: a word that means 'No.' 'Never.' 'Never again.'

"This is no brightly-colored parrot or other bird used to speech - this jet-black haunter of battlefields is commonly associated with death, not with conversation. But the young man asks it questions - questions to do with Death, and questions to which a 'no' answer is likely to make him more upset.

"If it were me, I might reword some of the questions - if I knew 'no' would always be the answer. But Poe himself suggests, in an essay about the creation of this poem, that this young man is enjoying (as some of us do) wallowing in his sorrow and grief ... that he is not ready yet to move on from his despair, from his thoughts of his lost love. He does not want to forget, even as he says he does.

"At the end of the poem, the narrator tells us that the bird (perched atop a bust of Pallas, goddess of wisdom, shadowing it) casts its shadow over him - that he is still under the shadow of death and loss, and may well be so, forever.

"Edgar Allan Poe's ... 'The Raven.'"

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• fitch
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• edgar
• allan
• poe
• raven
• memorized

[RavensHalo]

You are AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! High 5!!!!!

[GrantFitch]

Thanks! I really enjoy this piece. And great name, RavensHalo!!!

[GrantFitch]

Happy I could help, Doug! I'll have to post some more stories ... let me know what else your class is doing! lol

[ImtheHeirofSlytherin]

Excellent, fantastic job! Such emotion was thrown into this, to capture the image of Poe himself mourning the loss of his love ... Beautiful.

[kimmeco2]

amazing such Beautiful emotion And such Amazingly good acting Good sir :] I do believe you have won this book 5 stars again

[TheFussyPeach]

Beautiful interpretation! Thank you for sharing this. :o)

[RavensHalo]

My screen name is because my Daughters name is Raven. I absolutely LOVE E.A.P, and 'The Raven', in my opinion, is his best piece by far!

[rubixrocker]

Grant-

Doug here, I for sure used part of this as part of a mini-lesson during my clinical work with a class of American Lit students.

They loved it.

Thanks for your creativity!

-Doug Schlesser