Poe and Drugs (posted 8 September 2004)
Fields of Green: PoeEdgar Allen Poe was a drug addict.
Does this detail about Poe's life help us to understand and appreciate his literature? Or should Poe's works stand on their own? What do you think?
Poe refers to ..."this kind nepenthe" which according to Merriman-Webster is: 1 : a potion used by the ancients to induce forgetfulness of pain or sorrow
2 : something capable of causing oblivion of grief or suffering
So one could conclude that he had a lot pain in his life. The raven is full of longing for a woman that is dead and the raven seems to be a hallucination and/or metaphor for the darkness or largeness of her abscence in his life.
Should have previewed last comment first. I meant to put "The Raven" in quotation marks indicating I was referencing the the poem not the bird! Sorry.
Posted by: Linda Fondrk on September 9, 2004 11:13 AM | Permalink to Comment