Persona Of The Poem example essay topic

Through the use of dark and fiery images and diction that suggests both infernal and divine entities, Maurya Simon effectively links the presence of ravens with the presence of an otherworldly presence. She posits the ravens as secret emissaries between God and man, implying that the birds can sense something that humans cannot. In this way, the ravens are capable of experiencing the presence more deeply and more closely than the persona of the poem feels she can. Addressing the presence of God on earth is a weighty topic, and while Simon does not provide any concrete answers regarding God's existence or relationship to humans, it does reflect a sense of longing and uncertainty by the use of rhetorical question and by ending lines with question marks. The poem begins on an ominous note, with the animals of the poem's title curiously absent ("the ravens are gone" in the second line) and identified as being from "the realm of the dead".

Their presence is also identified as being a kind of contagion, the disks being "cured of their cries". This is the first of many implications of sinister nature in these birds and their association with the supernatural and divine. The ravens are also given human qualities when the persona describes them as wearing "pitch-blackened suits". This is also the first of the images of darkness and blackness that characterize the poem.

In the second stanza, after it is stated the ravens "are gone", the ravens do not appear, and there are no dark or black images. The scene described in the second stanza still contains ominous element, with smoke emerging from chimneys in the form of curled fists, suggesting a kind of forceful resistance to the presence of the ravens. The missing birds are also contrasted with the blue jays that take their place. The first juxtaposition of divine and earthly elements is found in the third stanza. The use of the word "exodus" suggests a pilgrimage like that taken by the Israelites in the Old Testament, and the "collective spirit" hints at the spiritual and otherworldly role that the birds fulfill in the landscape of the poem. These terms are paired with "conflagrations of dark flames" that "singe" the persona's "dreams nightly".

The dark flames are another infernal sinister presence, haunting the persona. The use of the verb "singe" demonstrates the sensation of burning within the persona's mind. The presence of these dark shapes inhabiting the persona's dream foreshadows the vision that appears in the fourth stanza. Though it is not clear whether the persona has actually seen the place where the ravens gather or if she has seen it in her my mind, the vision of this place is revealed to the reader in the fourth stanza. This vision has at its center an image of thousands of birds flocked around a mountain. Simon creates vivid descriptive language through the alliteration in the phrases "tattering its timber-line" and "wild with wings".

Just as the ravens are implied to be contaminating the scenery in the stanza, the birds "tattering" the mountain suggests a damaging, harmful presence. In the fifth stanza, Simon employs a very powerful rhetorical device by having the persona directly question God. The ravens are described as "soaring like omens", suggesting that the gathering of birds is a portent of something ominous. In the third line of the stanza, the metaphoric image of "Their bodies obsidian flints striking softly" combines elements of both darkness ("obsidian" is a dark black volcanic rock) and fire ("flints striking softly" suggests starting a fire). This dual-purpose image is contrasted with "Heaven's resonant silence" at the beginning of the sixth stanza.

The sixth and seventh stanzas alternately compare and contrast the ravens with humans. Their voices are described as "ancient with longing, tangled and blunt" like those of humans. But the persona still feels separate from these birds, because God calls them to swarm around this mountain and experience His presence and she left to "feel alone, diminished". The birds, which are linked with infernal, somewhat sinister images throughout the poem, give "resurrected cries", as though they are redeemed through this supernatural communion with God. The persona cannot understand why these birds are summoned to do this; she is "blind / To their purpose". Appropriately, the poem's two final stanzas make its strongest rhetorical statements, but leave both the reader and the persona with their questions unanswered.

The persona states that though she has "known another world", she "cannot name it nor return there". She is mystified by her inability to have the spiritual experience that the ravens. She questions the Almighty: "Why give to ravens what You withhold from me?" When she tells God, "Your divinity divides the world", the clues from earlier in the poem lead the reader to conclude that it is a division between good and evil, between the dark, fiery bodies of the ravens and the divine force that calls them to gather around Thunder Mountain in the presence of God. The final statement of the poem is another direct address to the Almighty, and it is hardly complimentary: "You are a shadow / Massive and billowing, more secretive than death".

The persona is finally so frustrated with her disconnection from God that she pairs him with an image of darkness and links him to death, the very event that God overcame through the resurrection of his son Jesus Christ from the grave. To tell God that He is "more secretive than death" is a very strong accusation indeed, and a powerful way to conclude a poem that grapples so heavily with spiritual faith. "The Ravens" is a very unsettling poem with a strong sense of confusion and frustration conveyed through the persona. The mixing of divine and infernal images gives a sense of spiritual and religious uncertainty. The persona's struggles with faith are revealed through the way she describes the birds that give the poem its title, and highlighted by the way she finally addresses her frustration with a God that she feels is giving her no strong signals, no guidance from above.