Quoth the Raven

Last week one of our essays concerned the life of Edgar Allan Poe. At the end of class the Critical Thinking Project asked the students to imagine they were a reporter who had the chance to interview Poe. I realize right away that the students would not have sufficient knowledge of Poe's works or life to ask adequate questions ("Marrying your 13 year old cousin. What's up with that?").

Instead, I decided that the best way to discuss Poe was in the context of his most famous work, "The Raven." Now, some teachers might just put on the Simpsons Halloween Episode that dealt with the poem. I, however, am far crueler. I printed out 9 copies of the poem in the original 19th-century English, and went around the room having the students read stanza by stanza. At the end of each stanza, of course, I paraphrased for them so they could understand it (mercifully, nobody asked me what "balm in Gilead" means . . . I haven't a clue). Naturally, this lecture included a good deal of focus on the word "nevermore," being that it's repeated a dozen times in the poem.

The kids seemed to follow it pretty well. They understood that the narrator was mourning for Lenore, and they got that he was slowly descending into madness as the Raven explained he would never see her again. But of course, after we finished, some diligent student raised his hand and said:

"Teacher! I cannot understand 'nevermore.'"