Edgar Allan Poe - The Raven
Hier drei Interpretationen auf Youtube:
Christopher Walken
Vincent Price
The Simpson
In seiner Philosophy of Composition von 1846 erklärt Poe die Entstehung seines Gedichtes. Er stellt sich die Frage, welches Wort er wählen möchte für seinen Refrain:
"That such a close, to have force, must be sonorous and susceptible of protracted emphasis, admitted no doubt: and the considerations inevitably led me to the long o as the most sonorous vowel, in connection with r as the most producible consonant.
The sound of the refrain being thus determined, it became necessary to select a word embodying this sound, and at the same time the fullest possible keeping with that melancholy which I had predetermined as the tone of the poem. In such a search it would have been absolutely impossible to overlook the word "nevermore". In fact, it was the very first which presented itself."
Nun muss der Dichter den Text zu für den fortführenden Gebrauch des Wortes "nevermore" noch finden. Er überlegt sich, wie es wäre wenn ein Mensch immer wieder "nevermore" sprechen würde. Doch er wählt lieber ein Wesen, eine Kreatur, die genau nicht sprechen kann und keine menschliche Intelligenz besitzt. Er wählt ein Tier, zuerst einen Papagei, dann jedoch einen Raben.
Melancholisch soll das Gedicht sein und das, was am melancholischsten überhaupt ist, ist der Tod:
"When it most closely allies itself to Beauty, the death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world - and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover."
Poe musste nun diese zwei Elemente verbinden: "of a lover lamenting his deceased mistress and a Raven continuously repeating the word Nevermore". Der einzige Weg dies miteinander zu verbinden, war, dass der Rabe das Wort als Antworten auf Fragen des Liebenden sprechen zu lassen. Wenn nun ein Wesen, das nicht sprechen kann immer wieder dieselben monotonen Antworten bereit hält wird das zwangsläufig zu heftigen Reaktionen des Fragenden führen.
Der Höhepunkt sollte der Vers: "Prophet, said I, thing of Evil" sein. Den Höhepunkt konstruierte der Dichter als erstes, um später die vorangangenen Teile entsprechend anzupassen.
Der Ort wo das Gedicht handelt sollte angepasst sein. Ein Feld, ein Wald? Poe findet nun, dass ein enger Raum viel besser passt, er würde auch wie ein Rahmen das Bild, das man sich von der Szene vorstellt umfassen: "I determined then, to place the lover in his chamber - in a chamber rendered sacred to him by memories of her who had frequented it."
Wie sollte der Rabe nun ins Spiel kommen, wie führt man ihn in die Szene ein?
"The idea of making the lover suppose, in the first instance, that the flapping of the wings of the bird against the shutter, is a "tapping" at the door originated in a wish to increase, by prolonging, the reader's curiousity, and in a desire to admit the incidental effect arising from the lover's throwing open the door, finding all dark, and thence adopting the half-fancy that it was the spirit of his mistress that knocked."
Darum muss auch die Nacht eine stürmische sein, um den Kontrast des ruhigen Zimmers zu erhöhen.
Der Vogel muss auf der Büste der Pallas Athene sitzen, um den Effekt von Marmor und Gefieder zu betonen. Warum die Büste der Athene? Es unterstreicht die Gelehrtheit der Hauptperson und ausserdem hat das Wort einen sonoren Klang.
Das Interessante am Gedicht ist, wie ein simpler Rabe, der nur ein Wort sprechen kann, sich in den Gedanken des Protagonisten wandelt. Wie die Hauptperson sich aufbäumt, sich windet und die wildesten Fragen stellt, die eigentlich unbeantwortet bleiben, der Rabe jedoch menschliche Züge in seinen Augen annimmt, macht das Gedicht immer noch genial.
The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,'
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'
Merely this and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -
Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as `Nevermore.'
But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow will he leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
`Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of "Never-nevermore."'
But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -
What this grim, ungainly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee
Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -
`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!