"The Raven" I have a question.

self ^ | 27DEC06 | self

[bannie]

I have searched the Internet for an answer to a litarary/historical question I have about Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," and I have had no success.

It struck me that FreeRepublic is the best Brain Trust I know of, so...

[bannie]

My question is about the third line of the 8th verse of "The Raven"...

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

WHY would a trimmed plume indicate cowardice?
I wondered of there was some custom among the Ancient Romans and their helmet plumes which might explain this line, but I really have no idea.

If someone in The Wonderful World of Freepers has some knowledge and time to share--and if Our Fearless Leader will forgive my abuse of band width--I would surely appreciate it. I have an ENQUIRING MIND.

(My granddaughters are here, so I might not be on the 'puter much this evening...I hope that's not faux pas-ish of me!)

[GOP_Party_Animal]

My guess: Heads were shaved to shame people like traitors or adulterers. A shaved head is a symbol of shame then.

[Thrownatbirth]

art sure no craven.

Art Modell brought the Ravens to Baltimore, if that's any help.

[bannie]

A traitor would be thrown into the pool of cowards by definition, I guess. I'll go try to find examples of that, so I can use that to explain the line.

:-) THANKS!

[BipolarBob]

The plumage among birds makes one sexually attractive to the opposite sex. It is a calling card. So it may symbolize emasculation.

[bannie]

BWAHAHA! Yea, that'll do it!

:-p

[kinoxi]

I've seen cockatiels raise their crests when they attempt to fear or intimidate other animals or people.

[bannie]

But why would that indicate cowardice? ("craven")

BTW: Nice plume there, bob...it's larger than most I've seen.

:-)

[bannie]

ooooooo, good one!

[GSlob]

Sometimes poets [even the good ones] are reduced to using filler lines. They come up with a few really good ones, and then use filler material of lower quality around them.

[bannie]

Bite your tongue! Not POE!

Seriously, at various times, he apparently told different stories about the composition of this poem. To some, he told that he just whipped it out over a couple of hours. Later, though, he wrote an essay about a lengthy construction of the work.

[T. P. Pole]

I did a google search on "the raven annotated." Here's an interesting one. It says "sometimes cowardly knights had their heads shaved, which explains the narrator's link of shaven crest to no craven."

Here's another that mentions knights.

You should be able to find more with a search like this.

[GSlob]

This applies even to the poets couple heads and shoulders above Poe, across epochs and languages. It is a general observation on their technique - although one could write an interesting research piece focusing specifically on comparison of their "filler" quality - versus the parallel comparison of respective "gem" quality.

[bannie]

I don't know why I missed these. I guess my search was more cursive than it should have been.

I'd better get a moderator to remove this.

Ich bin dumb! and embarrassed.

[Thrownatbirth]

Kuncinich called it a travesty.

[kingu]

When we dissected The Raven long ago in school, the thought was that it was the man, speaking to the Raven on this line, and ravens have no crest, like other birds, but it's lack of one does not indicate that the raven is craven, like a shaved head might.

Least that's vaguely what I recall. It was..um.. 25 years ago.

[jeddavis]

The thing with crows and ravens is kind of like the thing with the shrine and masons, i.e. you have to be a crow for several years before they'll let you be a raven.

[Rte66]

That's what I was going to say - that ravens don't have crests to be shaved off.

Perhaps that's why the raven *bird* itself - not necessarily *that* one - is considered the opposite of Minerva/Pallas Athena's white owl in *this* incidence.

The fluffed and feathered owl of wisdom, besides being white and therefore "pure" and "good" symbolically, would be the opposite of the poor old nearly bald black raven from Hades.

There is one story that Pallas and Athena had been siblings or friends and that Zeus had taken his scepter to them when they were fighting one day. Pallas was scared and looked away, so Athena decked him and then took his name as hers. That could be another layer of the fraidy-cat Pallas reference.

The person speaking has seen the raven fly in and presumptiously alight on Pallas Athena's head, so he knows the raven isn't craven or cowardly - it's bold and brash, crashing the narrator's pity party, uninvited.

So, I don't think Nevermore has been shaved or is a bald eagle pretending to be a raven. I think ravens in general are shorn and shaven in comparison to more full-feathered and crested birds.

He's a crow, but a little bit handsomer - tho not much.

[Blind Eye Jones]

Hair may also indicate strength as in the case of Samson from the Bible. But the Romans also knew that if the enemy grabbed your hair he can subdue you and, therefore, they had their soldiers cut their hair short. The line following with "Plutonian shore" looks more like Poe was suggesting a Roman reference rather than Christian. The bird is also a sinister or menacing figure perhaps coming up from the pagan underworld where Christian imagery of fallen strength doesn't directly apply, but maybe indirectly. An interesting twist: Roman strengthen, but fallen from a Christian perspective.

[Swordmaker]

My thinking is that it may refer to the feather an Indian brave earns by showing bravery. Native American males who did not show bravery were not entitled to wear a feather. Nor were they entitled to wear their hair in the manner of men, instead required to wear it in the manner of a woman. Such men were used as servants by all other braves and were ridiculed for lack of manliness and were considered cowards.

The Raven, not displaying the upright plumage "crest" of Cardinals, Woodpeckers, etc., could be said to be "shorn" which means "cut short" and "shaven". This makes it a double play on words, referring back to the "sad fancy into smiling" with amusement.