"The Raven" has been popular for more than one hundred years. Why doesn't it merit this continued attention?

One could argue that English language poetry has changed drastically in the years since 1845 when Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Raven," and that therefore this classic piece of American poetry should no longer continue to claim its iconic stature. In Poe's day, traditional verse forms were the accepted style among notable poets. Poe borrowed his rhythm and meter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the beloved British poet. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, an American contemporary of Poe's, wrote in traditional forms. However, toward the end of the 1800s, Robert Browning was paving the way for a departure from the strict rhythm and meter of poetry by heavily using enjambment and caesura, giving his poems the rhythm of everyday speech, and in America, Walt Whitman broke from traditional verse forms even earlier. In the early years of the 20th century, Ezra Pound sought to transform poetry by his Imagism movement on both sides of the Atlantic, and although not all poems adhered to the very short, succinct forms of Imagism, the movement's advocacy for discarding traditional poetic rhythms for the rhythm or everyday speech significantly affected the Modernist and Postmodern poets to the extent that today most poetry does not conform to the strict poetic constructs Poe used in "The Raven." 

Not only is the format of "The Raven" outdated, but so is the Gothic genre it relies on, one might also argue. Even in Poe's day, the Gothic was a vestige of a previous era, the Romantics having embraced it in the late 1700s. The dark and brooding, vaguely supernatural elements used in the poem have by now been so overused that they have lost much of their effect. Therefore, because of its outdated traditional structure and genre, one could recommend that "The Raven" be removed from its perch atop American poetry.

Nevertheless, making such an argument would require casting aside not only the historic value of our literary traditions but also an appreciation of the mastery of the poetic craft. A true classic does not diminish with time because it reflects beauty of language, mastery of technique, and depth of meaning. Whether the traditional verse forms are common today or not, they are nevertheless highly pleasing to the ear. As Jerome McGann, author of a recent Poe biography, argues, "Poetry is fundamentally a musical event using language as the instrument." Poe's skill in the use of sound devices, such as alliteration, assonance, and consonance, is particularly admirable in "The Raven." Not only that, but the themes dealt with in the poem, namely grief and depression, are just as salient today as they were in 1845 because they are an immutable part of the human experience. So, although one could argue that "The Raven" no longer deserves continued attention, once could just as easily embrace it as a timeless classic and continue to marvel at its beauty and relevancy—as yet untainted by time.