Was it the crow that killed E.A.Poe or did Lenor drive him to drink?

Question

Was it the crow that killed E.A.Poe or did Lenor drive him to drink?

Answer 1

If you look very closely at a couple of clues in the lines of the RAVEN, you discover a couple of things:

"while I pondered weak and weary over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore" -- what kind of books are these? what is "forgotten lore"?

"quaff o quaff this kind nepenthe and forget thy lost Lenore" -- what is "nepenthe"?  it is a mythical mixture that is supposed to give complete forgetfulness.

So, could the forgotten lore in small books be recipes for a mixture thought not to exist?  Would someone eager to forget a lost love try anything, including a possibly dangerous mixture?  The small books may be spell books or collections of "witchy woman" cure-alls and the narrator (NOT Edgar Allen Poe!) may or may not be dead at the end.

"take thy beak from out my heart and take thy form from off my door" may be referring to chest pains from the nepenthe he has just mixed and drunk.  But he may not be dead.  All we know is that his soul will be lifted nevermore" and it sounds like he's seeing himself from above like an out-of-body experience.  

Who killed the narrator?  The narrator possibly killed the narrator by drinking a potion that may or may not have been mixed correctly and may or may not have worked.

Answer 2

First, let's distinguish between the author and his works.

"The Raven" is a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.  It shares a common thread with a lot of his work--the death of a beautiful woman and the longing of her lover to be reunited with her.  This theme of loss is also quite evident in his short story, "Ligeia."

If you know much of his life, the reason for this melancholy fixation isn't hard to find.  His mother was an actress (and, by all accounts, an extraordinarily beautiful woman) and his father was a dancer.who abandoned his wife and son within three weeks of the younger Poe's birth.  With a baby to support, his mother returned to the stage when his father decamped.  

The role that Elizabeth Poe performed  was that of Juliet in Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet--so frequently (eight times a week) that little Edgar spent the first three years of his life watching his mother "die" and miraculously come back to life.

Unfortunately, his mother died when Poe was three and a half, of tuberculosis, and the poor little fellow saw her draw her final breath--she was no more than twenty years old.

So, this led to Poe's obsession with the death of beautiful women.

So, no, the raven didn't drive him bonkers, nor did Lenore drive him to drink.

Answer 3

Poe didn't need an excuse to drink. He was a misfit anyway. He was also addicted to opium. This was, I think, to ward off the pain of his tuberculosis.

Answer 4

HI M.O.K.

It is my understanding that on September 27, Poe left Richmond for New York. He went to Philadelphia and stayed with a friend named James P. Moss. On September 30, he meant to go to New York but supposedly took the wrong train to Baltimore. On October 3, Poe was found at Gunner's Hall, a public house at 44 East Lombard Street, and was taken to the hospital. He lapsed in and out of consciousness but was never able to explain exactly what happened to him. Edgar Allan Poe died in the hospital on Sunday, October 7, 1849.

M.O.K; the  mystery surrounding Poe's death has led to many myths and urban legends. The reality is that no one knows for sure what happened during the last few days of his life. Did Poe die from alcoholism? Was he mugged? Did he have rabies?

Poe's death  remains  a mystery -- but the puzzle still teases and entices us. It is easy to find ourselves M.O.K.revewing the stories again in hopes of finding something new  to settle the question once and for all.

Another interesting question Sir.

CATHORIO.

Answer 5

It was a raven!

Answer 6

Nevermore!

Answer 7

Nevermore!  It was the crow that killed Lenor, not Poe.