As my creative response to the poem, The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe I chose to make a collage because I felt it was the best way to represent the various themes throughout the poem. My intentions for the creative response were to make a heart sharped collage with a break down the center, on one side of the break I wanted to have dark and sad sayings, words and pictures to represent the darkness of the poem and the theme of madness.
On the other side of the break were the happy sayings, words and pictures to represent the theme of love that is displayed. The themes of madness and love that are represented in my creative response and in the poem itself are universal and this is why The Raven by E. A. Poe is an enduring classic. I chose to use a black cardboard around the outside of the collage to display how the man in the poem seems to be overtaken by the madness and consumed in his thoughts. It also represents the darkness of the poem.
When you look closely, you can see that some of the edges of the pieces of paper in the collage, especially around the ‘break’ in the heart, have been ripped. I chose to do this to represent his heartbreak and also to make the collage seem more messy, thus creating a sense of madness. I chose to include more words and phrases in the collage to display how words and thoughts are often related to madness and to try and show how his mind started to race when he had the encounter with the raven in the poem.
I chose to use the pictures of the lamppost, the leaves and the door because lampposts represent the night and in the poem, the man is woken up at night due to the tapping of the raven. The leaves, if you look closely, look similar to feathers, therefore, the leaves are meant to represent the raven. Lastly, the door is meant to represent the ‘chamber door’, which is mentioned during the poem. I decided to use the angel wings on each side of the heart to represent the raven and also his beloved Lenore, as he refers to angels when he speaks of her. For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore,” (E. A. Poe, The Raven, line 11).
I decided that the happy part of the heart should be smaller than the one of madness because it shows how the madness appears to be taking over the heart, just like how the madness is taking over his thoughts and mind. I tried to make the good side more colourful then the mad side so that it would represent the joy of being in love and the joy that he shows for a short amount of time when he realizes that the raven is trying to send him a message.
I chose to use the picture of the music notes because it symbolizes the musicality of the poem and the way that it flows like music. The rhyming throughout the entire poem also flowed smoothly and consistently and I believe I represented that in my creative response not placing the pictures and words randomly. Everything has a place, just like all of the rhyming words in The Raven. I believe that my creative piece is a good representation of the poem, The Raven.
However, if I were to redo the creative response I would make the break in-between the two sides of the heart more visible. I would do this by making it bigger and also surrounding it with lighter pieces of collage so that it stands out more. I would also make the joyful side brighter by including more images of bright flowers and other bright colours. I would also have included an image of a bride because it is an obvious symbol of love and I feel as though that side of the heart does not communicate the theme of love as well as the other side displays the theme of madness.
