The Atmosphere of Doom in The Raven

The Atmosphere of Doom in The Raven
Edgar Allan Poe’s life was unarguably the most awful lived by any one of the Romantic poets. The forty years that he lived were marked by death, severe depression, and insanity; themes that are recurrent in much of his poetry. Poe’s terrible life has an obvious influence on the atmosphere of impending doom that Poe creates in the poem The Raven.
One of the literary techniques that Poe makes use of in The Raven is diction. The mood and tone of the poem progress through Poe’s skillful use of alliteration and word choice. Poe begins the poem at a sad, somewhat tired pace with alliteration such as “nodded, nearly napping,” and “silken, sad, uncertain.” The pace of the poem quickens with the appearance of the “ghastly grim” raven who is “followed fast” by disaster. These two examples of clever alliteration show how the mood has changed from sad into frightening and how the tone has changed from slow and uncertain into fa...