Monday, 29 April 2013

What does "ghost" mean in the context of line 8 in "The Raven"?

ladyvols1

"And each separate
dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor."

Thisis
the same idea as the"giving up the ghost."  The death of the embers is like a person
dying and the spirit, or ghost, remaining.  In this poem by Poe, the narrator is at home in a
cozy room with a fire.  He is dozing and realizes the fire is dying down and the sparks, or
embers, are going out on the floor.  This metaphor is giving the reader a sense of the setting
for the poem.  To set the mood, Poe uses mysterious and depressing words in these descriptions:
bleak, dying, and ghost. We can imagine the cold December night and the narrator sitting
by a warm fire, lightly sleeping.  The narrator goes on to tell us he has been reading and
wishing for daylight.  He is trying to find peace from his memories of :

"Eagerly I wished the morrow;vainly I had sought to
borrow
From my books surcease of sorrowsorrow for the lost Lenore"

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