Question

from “The Raven”
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As if someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door—
“Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in a bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore —
Nameless here forever more.
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
“Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—
This it is and nothing more.”
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you”—here I opened wide the door;—
Darkness there and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”—
Merely this and nothing more.




Think about how you might describe the work of Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain in a figurative manner. Then, write one simile, one metaphor, and one analogy for each writer that gives readers a precise, vivid, and realistic image of their work or writing style.



Like all literary texts, both “The Raven” and “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” are products of the time in which they were written. Both Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain were American writers; Poe, who published his poetic masterpiece in 1845, was raised in Virginia, while Twain, who famously grew up in Missouri (but who lived on the West coast for a time), published his short story in 1865.

In an essay of 300 to 500 words, analyze the literary styles of Poe and Twain by comparing and contrasting their use of language to create precise, vivid images and convey details regarding character, setting, and plot. Then, relate the figurative language used in each text to its historical and cultural context. (You may want to research additional information about these contexts.)

Use specific quotations and evidence from the texts to support your analysis. Organize your essay clearly and follow the rules of English grammar and punctuation.

Answer 1

Similes, metaphors, and analogies

Edgar Allan Poe
- Simile: Poe’s work is like a candle flame in a mausoleum—small, trembling, and throwing monstrous shadows across memories best left dark.
- Metaphor: Poe’s poems are a funeral bell pealing inside the skull.
- Analogy: Reading Poe is like descending a spiral staircase into the cellar of the mind: each step tightens the air and reveals another relic of grief and dread.

Mark Twain
- Simile: Twain’s storytelling is like sunlight on a muddy riverbank—plain, warm, and brilliantly candid about what it exposes.
- Metaphor: Twain’s voice is a crooked grin—wry, shrewd, and ready to puncture pretension.
- Analogy: Reading Twain is like sitting on a front-porch with an old raconteur: the tale wanders, returns, enlarges trivial incidents into portraits of a people.

Comparative essay (approx. 380 words)

Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain produce vivid images and character through radically different linguistic strategies that reflect their eras and aims. Poe’s “The Raven” uses elevated, musical diction and tight formal devices to conjure psychological intensity: the opening line — “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary” — sets a metrical, mournful tempo. Repetition (“tapping, tapping…rapping, rapping”) and internal echoes (“Never—nevermore”) amplify obsession; ornate adjectives (“quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,” “the rare and radiant maiden”) layer memory and elegy. Poe’s figurative language (the “silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain”) is tactile and sensory, drawing the reader into the speaker’s claustrophobic mind and linking setting, sound, and psychological torment. Historically, Poe writes within the Romantic and Gothic traditions of the antebellum period, when fascination with death, the sublime, and the irrational provided tools for probing individual consciousness and urban loneliness.

By contrast, Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” fashions vividness out of plainspoken dialect, irony, and comic exaggeration. Twain frames the tale as overheard gossip and lets speech characterize people: the slow, circuitous narrator and the garrulous Simon Wheeler are painted chiefly through dialogue and anecdote. The frog Dan’l Webster and the gambler Jim Smiley emerge as living figures through concrete, picaresque detail and hyperbole; the humor lies in the specificity of small-town practices and wagers (the story’s tall-tale style makes regional behavior memorable). Twain’s language—colloquial, elliptical, and often satirical—maps to the post–Civil War frontier and the democratic, oral culture of the West: humor and local color expose social foibles and unpretentious values.

Both writers create precise images, but Poe’s metaphoric density pulls readers inward toward isolated grief, while Twain’s similes and anecdotal voice push outward, enlarging the local into social portraiture. Each author’s figurative choices are historically legible: Poe’s aestheticized gloom reflects Romantic preoccupations with mortality, whereas Twain’s vernacular realism and mock-heroic tone answer a nation negotiating expansion, class, and democratic identity.