Poe Girl Essay

1710 Words7 Pages
Poe Girl As a kid growing up and moving through elementary school, I never thought of poetry as anything more than writing something to make a girl like you. A poem would start out with the dry, decrepit, and overly used line, “Roses are red, violets are blue” and then would end with some witty rhyme to show the girl how “creative” you were. Poetry involves more than rhymes, I have learned. When used correctly, an author can pull on your heart strings, build your excitement, or even bring you down into the pits of despair. It is a great power to be able to mold words that will affect one’s emotions and conscience. No poet, in my opinion, grabbed this power and used it to get across his feelings more than the Edgar Allan Poe. In his poetry, Poe seems to focus on one particular girl…“Poe Girl,” who he kills in most of his poems. This repeated death of the Poe Girl has grabbed the attention of many feminists. Though feminists are an intently focused group of people, advocating for women’s rights; that does not mean that all feminists interpret things the same way. The way Poe writes his poetry, consistently killing a beautiful woman’ is taken as a compliment by some because it shows how she is always on his mind, and yet to others, it is an insult because the repeated killing of the girl seems disrespectful. Looking at this from a feminist’s point of view, you can draw a few conclusions: the first of which being female liberation, another being female power, and the final one being the oppression of females in society. Some believe that Poe is trying to liberate Poe Girl through his poetry. The continuous dying of Poe Girl in his poems represents Poe Girl being freed, allowing the release of her spirit. This too could be the reason Poe decided to symbolize Poe Girl as a raven in the poem, “The Raven.” The raven is there at night and gone in the morning, it has the
Open Document