Watch The Simpsons’ version of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, ‘The Raven’ here.

Before reading the poem, consider the following.

• What is the mood of this poem? How does the animation and sound track create or disrupt feeling? Do the animation and voiceovers detract from the mood? Consider Bart’s interjections – do they interrupt the mood or add suspense?
  
• Consider Lisa and Bart’s exchange about the changing expectations of the horror genre and Friday 13^th Part 1. Consider the way audiences become used to levels of horror and need the emotional impact of sequels to continue to escalate (often to the point of parody). In what ways do you think art needs to change to adapt to the changes in audience expectations in order to make an impact?

In the preface to the 1845 edition of his poems Poe wrote: ‘If what I have written is to circulate at all, I am naturally anxious that it should circulate as I wrote it… With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion..’ (Preface to The Raven and Other Poems).

• What responsibility, if any, do we have to a writer’s original text? How might ‘preserving’ the original form conflict with promoting a ‘passion’ for poetry?

Now read poem here

• How faithful is The Simpsons’ version to the language of the original? How does the animation interfere with or transform our experience of the poem?
  
  
• Does reading the nineteenth-century language convey the mood of the poem for you as well as The Simpsons’ text, or is your appreciation restricted by the obscure words and phrasing?

Extension activity.

Read the preface to the original publication of the poem in the journal American Review (apparently written by Poe).

• How does this ‘reviewer’ position the reader?
  
  
• What claims does s/he make for Poe’s poem?
  
  
• Does discussion of the poem’s metrical complexity enhance your response to the poe? Justify your response.
  
• How does the spoken text in The Simpsons’ version convey rhythm, rhyme, metre and emphasis?