The Raven

In my opinion, The Raven’s theme is about a person dwelling on his own grief or mental anguish. Other themes can include loneliness or lost love. After all, this poem is about his old flame, Lenore. Scientifically, it has been proven that raven’s are the smartest of all birds, and are considered mysterious and mythical. Once it was believed that they carried spirits on into the afterlife. Poe is asking the raven if it has been sent from heaven to carry the soul of his beloved Lenore to heaven. The raven quotes, “nevermore,” a theme carried out by Poe when he is saying that he will nevermore know the love of the fair Lenore. He will nevermore see her alive and well. He also feels that the raven will not leave him until his own death because of the way it sits just outside his door and stares at him evilly. It almost seems as if Poe feels that the raven is awaiting his death to carry his soul to the devil.

As for The Blessed Damozel, the theme is that of an estranged lover just outside the gates of Heaven who longs to be united with her lover who is not yet dead. She fervently hopes that God shall grant her wish that her lover’s soul should join her in heaven after he dies. Hence, she stands at the walls of heaven looking towards the earth below and longing for her lover’s soul to float up to join to her. This poem is full of hope and the belief that two people will once again find their true love upon reaching the heavenly gates.  The Damozel  finally gives herself up to “the light,” but goes inside the gates of heaven weeping since she doesn’t know when she will be joined by her lover.

Poe writes a poem full of despair and heartache. Rossetti writes one of hope. While both of them tell of love stopped by the death of one character, they show very different ideas of what happens in the afterlife. Poe leads the reader to believe that the spirit has to be carried onward by an inhuman source, whereas Rossetti leads one to believe that perhaps it is possible to communicate with someone that shares a special bond with their lover.