Rating 4 stars
Blurb
All 27 of Doré's detailed, masterly engravings from a rare 19th-century edition of The Raven, among the most popular American poems ever written. Dreamlike, otherworldly illustrations perfectly capture the bleak despair and mournful musings of Poe's poem. Apposite quotations from the poem are printed on facing pages; complete text is also included.
My opinion
It tells the story of a man who is visited by a raven late one night. After some lively discourse with the bird the man realizes the bird is his forever companion. Even after reading The Raven dozens of times I still find new undertones and meanings in the stanzas. The poem is rhythmic and full of scary images. The language is older, so there are a lot of vocabulary demands. Adult eyes, hearts and minds engage Poe's work differently, perhaps with a great degree of empathy and a nod of understanding. I am inspired to revisit Poe's other works and see what else I find buried, walled up, fluttering about, scraping, scraping, scraping to get out.
