Love and death are the main 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 main fixations of Edgar Allan Poe's poems "To Helen", "Lenore" and "The Raven". In the poems “To Helen,” “Lenore,” and “The Raven,” Poe studies the loss of ideal beauty and the difficulty of regaining it, but these works do not arrive at 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 shows that true love transcends death. In “The Raven,” the speaker continues to torture himself by repeatedly asking a menacing crow if he will ever find his deceased beloved. This essay analyzes how, in the poems “To Helen,” “Lenore,” and “The Raven,” Poe investigates the loss of ideal beauty and the difficulty of regaining it, but these three poems take a different approach to how they describe ideal beauty. subjects of love and death. Yet Poe is still able to convey a unified design in all three poems through the use of literary devices. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original EssayOne of the most crucial traits related to the theme of love in "To Helen" is the use of allusions in the language used by the speaker. allusions to underline 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, your beauty is for me." By referring to her inamorata as Helen, the speaker is referring to Helen of Troy who is considered the most beautiful woman who ever lived according to the goddess Venus in the myth called The Judgment of Paris. Helen of Troy was “the face that launched a thousand ships,” like the “Nicaean boats” 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 declares: “The agate lamp in your hand, Ah! Psyche of the regions which”. The agate lamp is also another classic allusion. In the Metamorphoses, it was Psyche, the incarnation of the spirit, who transmitted such an agate lamp. She stirred Eros to rest when a drop of oil from her light fell on him as he dozed. The speaker claims that, like Psyche, Helen enabled him to appreciate beauty and awakened his capacity 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 alliteration and metaphorical language. . An alliteration that describes the speaker's love for Helen is stated in the fifth line. The speaker states, “The weary and exhausted wanderer has made his way to his own native shore.” The “tired and exhausted wanderer” is an alliteration, it could allude to Odysseus, who, after the end of the Trojan War, made the long and significant adventure of his wife Penelope. The speaker may also present himself as a "tired and exhausted wanderer" who has returned home, because of his love for Helen, or because he is attracted to Helen's extraordinary beauty. In addition to alliterations, there are alsonumerous metaphors that describe the narrator's love for the speaker. In lines seven and eight, the speaker states: “Your hyacinth hair, your classical face, your Naiad airs brought me home/To the glory that was Greece and the greatness that was Rome.” . Helene’s “hyacinth hair” and “classical face” reinforce the feeling of her Hellenic beauty. The Naiads were a type of female spirit based on Greek mythology. They resided in the waters and are known to display incredibly beautiful faces. The way Helen's beauty brought the speaker home to Greece and Rome suggests not only that he was helped to remember the enchantment and magnificence of traditional civilization through her, but that he perceives it as the support of all Western civilization, which also refers to itself. Like Poe's poem "To Helen", his poem "Lenore" also uses literary devices to emphasize the theme of love. One of the most crucial traits related to the theme of love in "Lenore" is the use of repetition and hyperbole in the In language, the speaker uses repetition and hyperbole to emphasize the immense love that '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: "A hymn for the deadest queen that ever died so young - A dirge for her, doubly dead inasmuch as she died so young." The frequent repetition of the phrase "died so young" emphasizes that the speaker is melancholy that Lenore died so young. This repetition also emphasizes that the narrator loved Lenore's youth. Additionally, hyperbole is also used to emphasize the speaker's love for Lenore. Hyperbole is used in the fourth stanza when the speaker states, "From sorrow and groaning to a throne of gold, beside the King of Heaven." Throughout the poem it is stated that Lenore was an extremely beautiful woman who died tragically at a very young age. Guy de Vere, however, describes her beauty and ascension to heaven hyperbolically. The fact that De Vere constantly describes Lenore with so much love and continues to defend her reputation despite her death shows that he truly loves her. Additionally, the structure of the poem and allusions are also used to highlight the theme of death. The structure of the poem and allusions in the text are used to highlight the theme of death. Edgar Allan Poe uses internal rhymes to emphasize the theme of death. The speaker states: “For her, the fair and good-natured, who now lies so humbly, Life on her yellow hair but not in her eyes - Life still there, on her hair - death on her eyes. » The poem uses a rhyme scheme featuring couplets. The last three lines of each stanza of the poem form a triplet, in order to highlight the words “young”, “eyes” and “Sky”. The emphasis placed on these specific words highlights Guy De Vere's melancholy and sorrow. The speaker also uses allusions to emphasize the theme of death. In the second line, the speaker states, “a holy soul floats on the Stygian River.” This is a reference to the River Styx, one of the rivers that flowed through the underworld in Greek mythology. Only those with pure (holy) souls could cross the river to Elysium (heaven) once they died. In the poems “To Helen” and “Lenore,” the respective speakers use a variety of literary devices to emphasize the love they feel for their lovers. But the poem “Lenore,” unlike “To Helen,” also uses literary devices to emphasize the theme of death.In "Lenore", the deceased beloved is seen through the eyes of her living lover and therefore comes to embody the pinnacle of beauty and perfection in her death, but in "To Helen", Helen is alive and is the embodiment of beauty through the eyes of her lovers. Like Poe's poems "To Helen" and "Lenore," "The Raven" also uses literary devices to highlight the central themes of love and death. As in many other works of Poe such as "Lenore", "The Raven" also explores the theme of death through the use of repetition. The poem uses repetition to emphasize the grief the speaker feels over Lenore's death. Throughout the poem, the speaker constantly repeats the name, Lenore. Deep in that darkness, peering, I stood there for a long time wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal had ever dared to dream before; but the silence was uninterrupted, and the calm left no room. token, and the only word spoken was the whispered word: "Lenore?" » That's what I whispered, and an echo answered the word "Lenore!" —Simply that and nothing more. When the speaker repeats Lenore's name in the darkness, he understands that the only center of his endurance was actually Lenore and that he had to open this door of her uncertainty and flaws to make sense of it. The speaker also reveals the extent of his depression by whispering Lenore's name and how her loss affected him so much. In addition to lines thirty through thirty-six, the repetition of "nevermore" is also used in the last line of each stanza to express how seriously Lenore's death has affected the speaker. The speaker states: “He will embrace a holy maiden who bears the name of the angel Lenore — Shall embrace a rare and radiant maiden who bears the name of the angel Lenore/Quoth the Raven Nevermore.” The President sinks into even greater confusion when he realizes that he is stuck in this agony and that no relief comes to him. Frantically, he asks if he will ever hold on and hold onto his beloved Lenore until the end of time. The crow answers no in a derogatory tone. The speaker was crushed by his emotions after being confronted with it, as he realizes that he will never find Lenore again, which causes him great grief. In addition to repetition, the use of symbolism and poetic structure is also used to emphasize the grief the speaker feels now that his beloved Lenore is dead. The poem uses poetic structure and symbolism to highlight the grief the speaker feels now that his beloved Lenore is dead. dead. Poe uses specific sounds and a specific rhyme scheme to emphasize the theme. The speaker says: “On this house haunted by Horror — tell me sincerely, I beg you — Is there — is there balm in Gilead? — tell me — tell me, I implore!/ Said the Raven “Never again.” Poe emphasizes the "O" sound in words, for example "Lenore" and "never again" in order to emphasize the speaker's sorrow and melancholy. Poe uses words that rhyme with "more" throughout each 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 seriously Lenore's death has affected the speaker. The speaker says, “Is there — is there any 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 narrator's loss and impending doom. The entire text explores the metaphorical death of hope and the disappearance caused by Lenore's death. The Raven symbolizes the trend.