Stephanie Roldan- The Power of Words

I think Grassi's theory of word play and mastery of words is very well applied to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." Poe was very good at using the lyrical quality of his poems to add to the emotion the words expressed. As Grassi said, the poet as a writer calls the human world into being. The expert control of words demonstrated by Poe helps make the poem a more all-encompassing experience for the reader. I love reading this poem out loud because it starts of slowly and casually, until the narrator beings to feel threatened by the raven. The cadence of the poem starts to change (partly because your tongue is a bit more used to reading the verses at this point), but the rhythm of the rhyme speeds up as the narrator's panic begins to overtake him. I actually start to feel a tingling of nerves when he reaches the few lines at the height of excitement. Then the final stanza abruptly returns to the slower original meter, but this time with a chilling, dark, ominous tone. It's a very enthralling experience, considering the story is with little context and technically the poem is just words on the page. I think this is a good example of what Grassi meant when he described the poet's ability to create worlds and feelings with his words.