Abstract: The Crow is the representative work of edgar allan poe, an American poet and literary critic. The theme of the poem "The Death of a Beauty" is expressed in beautiful form and strong sense of music. The choice of theme, form and language embodies the poet's creative idea, and the successful practice of this poem also confirms its related theories.
Keywords: edgar allan poe; Crow; Theme; Form; musicality
Edgar allan poe is regarded as the pioneer of aestheticism. Together with Whitman and Dickinson, he is called/kloc-the three most creative poets in America in the 9th century. Poe's viewpoint of "poetry for poetry's sake" determines the aestheticism tendency of his poetry works, which are exquisite in form and beautiful in rhyme. Edgar allan poe wrote in The Principles of Poetry: "I don't think there are any long poems at all.' Long poems' is a self-contradictory word. Poetry is poetry because it can inspire people and sublimate the soul. The brevity of people's excitement is a psychological need. " Therefore, in order to create an aesthetic poem that can leave a deep impression on readers, according to him, a poem of about 100 lines is the most ideal.
Edgar allan poe elaborated his thoughts on literary creation in his book Philosophy of Creation, and clearly put forward the theme of "the death of a beautiful woman" for the first time. He pointed out that "beauty is the only orthodox field of poetry", "melancholy is the most authentic artistic conception in all poems" and "death" is the most melancholy theme, so "when death is closely linked with beauty" is the most poetic. Edgar allan poe's conclusion is that "the death of a beautiful woman is undoubtedly the most poetic theme-if this theme is told by a lover who mourns the dead, it is the most appropriate". This theme is the keynote of crows.
Crow is Poe's masterpiece, and Poe's beauty in theme, form and music is fully reflected in this poem. Edgar Allan Poe analyzed the writing process of this poem in The Philosophy of Creation, and he consciously chose the unknown birdsong as his sustenance. Maximum grief and despair ",this poem is to express Poe's favorite theme, that is, the" melancholy beauty "brought by" death ",that is, the beauty of the theme.
Ravens have a unique shape. In order to achieve the overall artistic effect of poetry, edgar allan poe carefully considered the length of poetry before writing, and thought that a poem should not be too long, because if it is too long, readers will be easily tired or easily disturbed, and it will be difficult to read. A poem can't be too short, too short is a bit like an epigram, and it can't achieve a certain effect. Edgar allan poe said in Philosophy of Creation: A work can only be read in one breath, otherwise its aesthetic unity will disappear, because mundane trifles will interfere. The so-called long poems, such as Milton's Paradise Lost, are actually composed of many short poems, that is, the overall effect is formed by many short effects. After determining the scope and length of this poem, Poe designed the best length that can be read at one time by using mathematical calculation, logical reasoning and psychological knowledge, that is, 108 line of The Crow. The whole poem of The Raven consists of 18 sections, with 6 lines in each section. The first 5 lines have similar words and syllables (all from 15 to 16), and the last line has only half the words and syllables in the first 5 lines. It is the six lines of 18 that make up the whole poem. Therefore, the whole poem is unified in form. Obviously, the way the author unfolds this poem is straight and rigid, and it is this rigidity that is highly consistent with the atmosphere of the whole poem, indicating that the narrator has been numb to the extreme.
The beauty of music is the most prominent feature of crows, and it has a strong sense of rhythm and melody. In The Principles of Poetry, Poe thinks that only by combining poetry with music can we find the broadest field of poetry development, and he also gives a short definition of poetry: "the creation of beautiful rhythm". The rhythm that Allan Poe designed for crows in his creative philosophy is the situation of promoting and suppressing. The first syllable of each line is stressed and the second syllable is not stressed. One or three octaves alternate with two or four lines of seven semitones, and the last line ends with three semitones with triple rhyme. Its rhythm format is always ABCBBB. This kind of poetry writing skill runs through the whole poem, creating a mysterious and horrible atmosphere for the whole poem, corresponding to the sad mood of the youth, and faithfully showing the tone of the whole poem's deep sadness, pain and despair. This rhythm creates what you will do, sadness, maximum grief and despair, which makes readers deeply shocked and moved by the theme of "the beauty of death".
The uniqueness of Poe in The Crow lies in the ingenious combination of fixed rhythm and metrical design, as well as the extensive use of parallelism, antithesis, antithesis and repetition, which connects the whole poem into a whole, runs through the sadness of youth and expresses the sigh and endless pain of youth.
Alliteration is one of the basic forms to achieve phonological harmony. It contains the beauty of music and neatness of language, which makes the language blend sound and emotion, integrate sound and meaning, and has strong expressive force and appeal. The musical beauty of The Raven depends on the use of alliteration to some extent. The use of alliteration not only achieves the musical effect, but also enhances the artistic conception of poetry. For example, in the first line of the first verse, "Weakness and fatigue" lays a melancholy and depressing tone for the whole poem, and every sentence seems to feel the fatigue and depression of the protagonist; The third line, Nodding Near a Nap, describes the dynamic sound produced by knocking at the door when young people are extremely sleepy, which forms a strong correspondence with the dead night and the sadness in young people's hearts, and produces a terrible suspense. Readers can personally experience that when the protagonist is sleepy and dreaming in the middle of the night, he suddenly hears the gentle knocking sound of "Benedict" outside the door, thus rendering a mysterious and horrible atmosphere for the whole poem.
In-line rhyme means that the stressed syllable in the middle of a line rhymes with the last stressed syllable in the line. In the lines 1 and 3 of each section of The Crow, the poet emphasizes the musicality of the poem with inner rhyme, which achieves the effect of echo. Here, let's take the first section as an example to analyze it: In this poem, we notice that edgar allan poe carefully arranged the words "fear" and "fatigue", "nap" and "recording" and "emitting" and "fluttering" in the next section. The continuous inner rhyme forms a high degree of unity of poetry and lays a melancholy and mysterious tone for the whole poem. Make the whole poem festival full of strong sense of rhythm and produce strong musicality when reciting.
The ending rhyme is the rhyme of the whole poem, and it is the repetition of the suffix and consonant at the end of the line. The rhyme is the most important musical means of this poem. As Poe pointed out in Philosophy of Creation, he deliberately chose the loudest long vowel "O" as the rhyme of this poem. Obviously, the poet deliberately emphasized this kind of voice and used it as the keynote of the whole poem. This kind of loud, long, deep and sad voice makes the whole poem full of "deep and gloomy voices". Each of the six lines in this poem has four lines/):/rhyme, that is, the second, fourth, fifth and sixth lines, the whole poem/):/rhyme, ***72 lines, that's all. Ending with evermore or nevermore o/):/):/ The constant reproduction of rhymes strengthens the internal connection of poems, which are interlocking, tortuous and shocking. This rhyme is like an emotion that can't be expressed because of sadness and choking. It shows the tone of the poem, which is deep, sad, painful and desperate. The use of every rhyme in the poem will arouse the infinite sadness in the reader's heart, so that the reader and the young man can feel this sadness and experience this pain together until the young man is heartbroken and almost crazy.