BA #2

A.
Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Raven"
(http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/edgar_allan_poe/poems/18848)

This poem is narrated from the persona of a lonely and sorrowful man who's lover has died. He is visited late at night by a raven, which perches above his door and torments him by answering his questions only with the word "nevermore."
I particularly like this poem because, though it is dark in mood, the language and imagery is beautifully crafted to create a fantastic, yet melancholy scenario. From beginning to end, there is a significant amount of tension in each stanza of the poem. It tends to stay with me because there is something about the poem that grasps my attention on a deep level.
I can liken this poem thematically and in mood to "Rough Weather" by James Reeves. The Raven is darker, but they both express a tension and, as stated in "Rough Weather," a "madness" (line 14) that comes when one is languishing in memories of an absent loved one. Though, as the reader can assume, the "rough weather" is referring to a period of separration, and the lovers in "The Raven" are separated by life and death, both are situations that make the poems have lonely and melancholy undertones.