Comparison of The Raven and The Erlking

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Jennifer Johnson-Ashbey                                                      Poetry Coursework

Compare and contrast Goethe’s ‘The Erlking’ with Poe’s ‘The Raven’. In particular, describe and

discuss how the poets create tension and suspense

In this essay, I am going to compare and contrast the two famous poems, ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allen Poe and ‘The Erlking’ by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The Raven is a one hundred and eight line poem about a lonely man who is unstable after losing his wife and comes across a raven who only speaks the word, “nevermore”. The Erlking is a poem about a man in a small girl’s nightmare as he torments her but nobody else can see him. There are many similarities and differences between the two poems. Both poems have a gothic atmosphere and can be compared strongly in this way. However, both are of different lengths and differ fro9m each other. In this essay, I am going to discuss how the two poets create tension and suspense and make a conclusion after studying these poems.

The first element I am going to compare and contrast is the storyline of the poem and the impression it is meant to have on its reader. I am going to start by analysing each poem individually and then make a small conclusion when I will see how they are similar and how they differ. I will be using this structure for each point I will discuss.

I will start by analysing ‘The Raven’. The main principle of Edgar Allen Poe’s poem was to have a lasting effect on its reader. Shortly, before he wrote ‘The Raven’, Poe’s wife had been diagnosed with an illness. This illness was later the cause of her death soon after he had finalised is poem. It is said that this poem is his forecast of what was going to happen to his wife. This is, therefore, the reason why he chose a raven to be the main character, because it was thought to be the most evil bird. The Raven is meant to be a representation of Edgar Allen Poe reflecting his responses to the bad news of his wife.

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The Erlking is a very dark poem and starts by giving a notion that the boy is simply imagining the Erlking and is dying of a strange disease. However, the poem takes a sinister twist when the boy dies at the end of the poem. Goethe had many reasons of writing such a dark poem.  Such a reason is that the night before he wrote the poem he saw a local farmer carrying a bundle. This turned out to be a man who was carrying his sick child to hospital. This was where the main inspiration for the storyline ...

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