The Raven Pecked Lenore's Eye's Out..
(a compare/contrast essay)

 Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston, MA to his parents, David and Elizabeth Poe. When Edgar was only three years old, his parents, who were both actors, died. Because of their deaths, Edgar was unofficially adopted by John Allan in 1811. In Poe's lifetime, he wrote many poems and short stories, which were very dark and sometimes very frightening. Some of this darkness came from his childhood, and some came from the bottle. Edgar Allan Poe was an alcoholic, and this contributed to his style of writing. Even though he is considered one of the great writers of his time, when he was alive, his works were sometimes misunderstood and disliked by many. Poe's work used a lot of imagery, making sights of devilish creatures appear in your mind. Although Edgar Allan Poe's poems, "The Raven" and "Lenore", are similar in some ways, yet different in others.
 Both Edgar Allan Poe's poems, "The Raven" and "Lenore", use rhyme scheme and rhyme, but they are used in different ways. For example, in "The Raven", the last word in each sentence rhymes with the next, as in A rhymes with A, B rhymes with B, etc. This is excluding the first sentence. But in "Lenore", the first two sentences don't rhyme with anything.
 Example: (The Raven)
A: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
B: Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore--
C: While I nodded, nearly napping,
C: suddenly there came a tapping,
C: As of some one gently rapping, rapping
B: at my chamber door.
B: "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--
B: Only this and nothing more."
Example: (Lenore)
A: Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!
B: Let the bell toll!- a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;
C: And, Guy de Vere, hast thou no tear?- weep now or nevermore!
C: See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!
D: Come! let the burial rite be read- the funeral song be sung!-
D: An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young-
D: A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.

 Edgar Allan Poe's poems, such as The Raven and Lenore, use a lot of imagery about death, but they sometimes use it in different ways. In The Raven, the actual bird represents death, in some ways. The bird, the raven, is somewhat like the grim reaper, as in it is bringing death, or is the sign of death itself. In Lenore, he is writing about the mourning of the death of his wife, or lover. They are similar in the way of that they are both talking about death. But in "The Raven," death is there. It is in the form of a bird. As in "Lenore," where death is in the form of a dead woman. Death has already came, and he is mourning. Also, in both poems, they talk about a person named Lenore. You can somewhat get that the raven is death from this line: "And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted--nevermore!" It sounds like he has died, and he is actually lying on the floor. The main difference between these poems are that "The Raven" has death symbolized as a raven, and in "Lenore", death has passed, and is shown as a dead woman.
 Even though "The Raven" and "Lenore" are both storylike, they both have some differences. For one thing, "The Raven" is much, much longer than "Lenore". They are both ballads, since they are both story like, but "Lenore" is more like an elegy because the poem is about the mourning of an individual, in this case, his wife. "The Raven" is more like the presence of death, and how it scared the living crap out of him. In "Lenore", he is telling us how he misses his death wife. It is more about mourning the loss of a loved one than "The Raven". "Come! let the burial rite be read- the funeral song be sung!- 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 Raven" has nothing like this.
 These two poems, "Lenore" and "The Raven" have much in common. They most likely have a lot more in common that I put here. I think the reason people like Edgar Allan Poe's poems is, when you usually think of poetry, you think of nice, beautiful images. In Poe's poems, they are the complete opposite. His poems were about death, and dark images like death. The words he uses are very powerful, and you can actually imagine what is going on. That is why I think people like his poems and short stories.

http://www.nps.gov/edal/raven.htm

http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/poe/works/poetry/lenore