Lenore

by Edgar Allan Poe · 1843 · 1 min lukuaikaa · 26 riviä

Lyhyesti

“Lenore” by Edgar Allan Poe is a poem about a young woman’s death and a dispute over how to mourn her. It opens with a broken golden bowl, a tolling bell, and Lenore’s body lying on a bier. A speaker urges Guy De Vere to weep and join the funeral rites. Guy instead accuses the mourners of loving Lenore’s wealth, hating her pride, and helping bring about her death through slander. They admit wrongdoing but ask for a solemn song, recalling the bride he has lost and contrasting her bright yellow hair with her lifeless eyes. At the end, Guy rejects the funeral bell and dirge. He imagines Lenore rising from a cruel earth to a golden throne in heaven.

Ah broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!Let the bell toll!—a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;And, Guy De Vere, hast thou no tear?—weep now or never more!See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!Come! let the burial rite be read—the funeral song be sung!—An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young—A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.

“Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride,And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her—that she died!How shall the ritual, then, be read?—the requiem how be sungBy you—by yours, the evil eye,—by yours, the slanderous tongueThat did to death the innocent that died, and died so young?”

Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath songGo up to God so solemnly the dead may feel no wrong!The sweet Lenore hath “gone before,” with Hope, that flew besideLeaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride—For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies,The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes—The life still there, upon her hair—the death upon her eyes.

“Avaunt! to-night my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise,But waft the angel on her flight with a Paean of old days!Let no bell toll!—lest her sweet soul, amid its hallowed mirth,Should catch the note, as it doth float up from the damned Earth.To friends above, from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven—From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven—From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven.”

Mitä se tarkoittaa, rivi riviltä

Rivit 1–7: The opening speaker announces Lenore’s death through the image of a broken golden bowl and a spirit departing. The bell, bier, and proposed funeral song establish public mourning. Guy De Vere is pressed to show grief. Calling Lenore doubly dead emphasizes the added loss of dying young.

Rivit 8–12: Guy answers with anger rather than tears. He accuses the mourners of valuing Lenore’s money while resenting her pride, then welcoming her death when she grew weak. His questions challenge their right to perform sacred rites. References to hostile looks and slander make their cruelty part of his explanation for her death.

Rivit 13–19: The mourners admit wrongdoing but urge Guy to stop raging and allow a solemn religious song. They describe Lenore as having gone ahead with Hope, offering a consoling view of death. The lost marriage makes Guy’s grief concrete. Repeated contrasts between her yellow hair and dead eyes show beauty surviving without life.

Rivit 20–26: Guy rejects a dirge and chooses a song of praise instead. He orders silence from the bell so earthly sorrow will not disturb Lenore’s heavenly joy. Sharp contrasts between friends and fiends, earth and heaven, grief and a golden throne turn her death into an escape from cruelty and an ascent to honor.

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Kolme pohdittavaa kysymystä

How does Guy’s response to the funeral rites change the meaning of mourning in the poem?
What do the contrasting images of Lenore’s hair and eyes suggest about beauty and death?
How does the final vision of heaven answer Guy’s accusations against the mourners?

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200 000+ klassikkoa. Kaikki muodot, alkuun maksutta.

E-kirjat ja 15 minuutin tiivistelmät sekä mikä tahansa kirja omakustannushintaan painettuna, myös isotekstisenä.

Aloita maksuttaUusiutuu vuosittain · Peru milloin tahansa

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