the movement. With two exceptions (s in line 65 and ƒ in line 45) those emphasized by alliteration are explosives: t (lines 37, 52), b (line 36), d (line 47), c (lines 54, 69). Assonance of a in line 69 adds to the vocalic effect. Lines 60 and 64 imitate the rise and fall of flames. Abrupt pauses within the short lines help to produce the irregularity of meter desired in this description of the jangling fire-bells.

V. The fourth stanza (lines 70-92), speaking of the stern, heavy, tolling, deep-toned iron bells, has a slow, solemn melody. The tone-color is made by long, deep vowels formed far back in the mouth, so that they use the resonance cavities of the head; especially by ō. Liquid consonants make the melody smooth; alliteration of m (lines 75, 83) and of r (lines 97, 101) emphasizes the liquids. Assonance of and frequent rime on ō emphasize that sound. Groan is onomatopoetic. Toll, onomatopoetic, is emphasized by assonance, repetition, and rime. The solemnity of the first part of the stanza is relieved by the brighter lines 93-101, describing the merry, fantastic sprite of the steeple. Here are found the light, front vowels e and i, which give the tone-color of stanza one. Lines 102–108 come gradually back to the tone-color of stanza four; and the stanza ends with the effect of the iron bells. The last half of the last stanza, therefore, gathers up and summarizes the diction and the sound effects of the four stanzas, and thus unifies the entire poem.

VI. One of the remarkable devices of the poem is the repetition of the word bells, in imitation of the sound of the bell. The word, like the stroke of a bell, begins with a strong accent and dies away gradually; thus >. This is true also of the words that rime with bells - tells, swells, dwells, cells, knells, wells, etc. It is also true of the word time, (>) repeated for imitative effect in lines 9, 96,

etc.

The words toll-tolling and their rimes are imitative in the same way, and more deliberate and resonant. These imitative series should be read so as to bring out more fully the effect of each stanza, the movement and melody of the series varying with the spirit of the stanza. Lines 12 and 13 should suggest the jingle of the merry sleigh-bells; lines 32-34, the glad peal of the wedding-bells; lines 65–68, the harsh, clanging fire-bells; lines 108-112, the heavy, slow, funeral-bells. The resonant ring of the bell is also in the frequently occurring syllable ing, which should be pronounced fully and clearly every time it occurs.

Some long words, rather unusual in poetry, are employed with excellent melodic effect: tintinnabulation, voluminously, palpitating, for example. Two of these contain a consonant repetition similar in effect to alliteration.

VII. The meter is trochaic, as befits the animated character of the poem. It is natural to accent the stressed syllable strongly here, and so bring out the metrical structure, and imitate the striking of a bell. This might be bad, because distracting, in a poem that emphasized thought; but it is good in one that emphasizes sound and music. The lines are irregular in length, varying from monometer to octameter. The majority are trimeter and tetrameter. The first three lines and the last three are of the same form in all the stanzas, and this produces a slight suggestion of stanza-structure. In these lines the significant words are joined and emphasized by alliteration, assonance, or internal rime. Adjacent lines usually rime. This frequent rime, especially on the word bell, helps much in the imitative effect of the poem, as well as in the melody. Internal rimes in lines 31, 35, 113 give an effect similar to the riming of short lines. Feminine rime is found in tinkle - sprinkle - twinkle,

twanging-clanging, clanging, jangling — wrangling, people — steeple, human (imperfect).

woman

VIII. Practice reading the poem. Try to bring out fully the tone-color and the imitative effects.

THE RAVEN

I. Read the poem through for its story and its tone. Tell the story in your own words. What is the tone of the poem? II. Study the rhetorical devices that produce the sound effects.

1. Meter: Number of lines in stanza; length of lines; foot; lines 2, 4, 5, 6 end with a rest.

2. Rime: The end rime is abcbbb; b in every stanza is ōr; the

constant recurrence of this most resonant vowel and most musical liquid has much to do with the effect of the poem. Internal feminine rime in lines 1 and 3 of each stanza breaks in two these long lines. In the middle of line 4 there is, in most stanzas, a feminine rime with the middle of line 3. Line 14 also has internal feminine rime.

3. Other musical devices: Discuss the amount, character, and effect of alliteration. There is not much assonance, because there is so much rime. Repetitions emphasize the emotional effect; line 5 of each stanza repeats more or less line 4; other repetitions occur in lines 3, 82, 83, 88, 102. Find all the examples of onomatopœa.

What sound persists as an undertone through the whole poem? By what devices is it kept up? What is its emotional effect?

III. In a critical essay called The Philosophy of Composition Poe has explained his use of rhetorical devices in this poem.

Read the essay carefully. Then read the poem again, this time aloud, in order to feel the effect of its music. Does the poem produce on you the effect intended by the writer? Does it seem to you in the least mechanical and artificial in the use of rhetorical devices? Do you think the lover felt profound grief for the death of the lady?

IV. Read the poem aloud. Bring out clearly the sound of ōr every time it occurs; let it be heard as a recurrent minor note beneath the ripple of meter, alliteration, and rime.

If the student wishes to consult authorities other than Poe himself (often a doubtful authority) concerning the origin of this poem, he may turn to pages 156 to 159 of the tenth volume of the StedmanWoodberry edition of Poe's works. See also the Preface to the same volume, pages xxxi, xxxii. Critics have been very industrious in attempting to prove that Poe plagiarized the poem from various obscure contemporaries, possibly because Poe was so ready to cry "Plagiarist" at others, especially at Longfellow. The most interesting borrowings of Poe in The Raven are those from Coleridge and Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning. For his alleged indebtedness to Coleridge, see volume six of the Stedman-Woodberry edition, A Reply to Outis. Stedman points out the general similarity between The Raven and Mrs. Browning's Lady Geraldine's Courtship in meter, stanza, and diction, and the special likeness between Poe's third stanza and Mrs. Browning's fourth. Poe greatly admired Mrs. Browning (then Miss Barrett), and dedicated to her The Raven and Other Poems.

Many of Poe's best known poems appeared in several forms. When he had to furnish a poem to a magazine, he apparently preferred to re-write an old one, rather than to compose one altogether new. Persons interested in the changes, improvements, and variant readings will find them collected in the notes to the tenth volume of the Stedman-Woodberry edition. See also Henry E. Legler's Poe's Raven: Its Origin and Genesis.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

I. In his essay on Short Story Writing Poe says:

A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents - he then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tend not to the outbringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In the whole composition there should be no word written of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design.

Read carefully The Fall of the House of Usher, and decide what effect Poe wishes to produce with this tale, whose motifs are insanity and premature burial.

You will observe that Poe uses the word house in the two senses: the "building" and the "family" (paragraph 3). Explain the meaning of the title, using house in the second sense. Does Poe intend the word to be understood in the title in both senses?

II. The setting of the story (paragraphs 1-7).

The guest approaches the house, which is described as he feels and sees it. He describes it without and within. Show how this description helps to produce, from the opening phrase of the tale, the effect which the author has in view. Note particularly the effect produced by the adjectives. Could a story be a pleasant one with such a beginning? Could anything agreeable happen in such surroundings? Certain expressions are particularly suggestive; as "vacant, eye-like windows," which reminds the reader of the "vacant" eye of a person of infirm mind. The occasion of the visit, too, is not pleasant (paragraph 2). In this introduction,