After listening to this song and reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" about 500 times, I would have to say this song is incredibly well-written. It makes great use of Edgar Allan Poe's metaphors and such to express a somewhat different idea. Allusions to Edgar Allen Poe that really jump out are "Now I'm sober and nevermore/Will the Raven come to bother me at home." "The Raven" is basically about a man who was sitting, thinking about Lenore, a dead woman who he loved, when the raven taps on his door. When he gets up to open the door and no one is there, he mutters Lenore's name and it echoes (though I'm not sure if the Raven was shouting back Lenore, or if it was just an echo). Then, throughout the poem, the man talks to the raven, which was perched on the bust above his door, only to receive the same repetitive response, "Nevermore!" A less obvious allusion that I noticed was, "I am a natural entertainer,/Aren't we all holding pieces of dying ember?" And to quote "The Raven," "Each dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor." In "The Raven," the dying embers are presented as what once was, memories of his lost (dead) love, Lenore (which is the name Poe actually uses). I think the door and window might be an allusion, too, but that requires more thinking. @_@
After listening to this song and reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" about 500 times, I would have to say this song is incredibly well-written. It makes great use of Edgar Allan Poe's metaphors and such to express a somewhat different idea. Allusions to Edgar Allen Poe that really jump out are "Now I'm sober and nevermore/Will the Raven come to bother me at home." "The Raven" is basically about a man who was sitting, thinking about Lenore, a dead woman who he loved, when the raven taps on his door. When he gets up to open the door and no one is there, he mutters Lenore's name and it echoes (though I'm not sure if the Raven was shouting back Lenore, or if it was just an echo). Then, throughout the poem, the man talks to the raven, which was perched on the bust above his door, only to receive the same repetitive response, "Nevermore!" A less obvious allusion that I noticed was, "I am a natural entertainer,/Aren't we all holding pieces of dying ember?" And to quote "The Raven," "Each dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor." In "The Raven," the dying embers are presented as what once was, memories of his lost (dead) love, Lenore (which is the name Poe actually uses). I think the door and window might be an allusion, too, but that requires more thinking. @_@