PDA

View Full Version : The real author of "The Raven"--video



ssake
06-08-2019, 02:47 PM
For the past 10 years I have been studying the life and work of Mathew Franklin Whittier, younger brother of poet John Greenleaf Whittier. I have run into compelling evidence that Mathew was the original author of "The Raven," and that Poe stole it from him. Mathew wasn't able to defend himself against Poe publicly, because he was doing dangerous anti-slavery work there in New York City, and couldn't blow his cover. I've explained the evidence in a recently-released video, at this YouTube URL:
https://youtu.be/dgoGmZaV5-w
(it should be posted and available by late afternoon on 6/8/19).

OrphanPip
06-08-2019, 04:34 PM
For the past 10 years I have been studying the life and work of Mathew Franklin Whittier, younger brother of poet John Greenleaf Whittier. I have run into compelling evidence that Mathew was the original author of "The Raven," and that Poe stole it from him. Mathew wasn't able to defend himself against Poe publicly, because he was doing dangerous anti-slavery work there in New York City, and couldn't blow his cover. I've explained the evidence in a recently-released video, at this YouTube URL:
https://youtu.be/dgoGmZaV5-w
(it should be posted and available by late afternoon on 6/8/19).

I'm afraid your argument isn't very convincing. The innuendo and unverifiable (without me doing an inordinate amount of archival research) throughout are unconvincing. However, I will turn my attention to your first point where you claim Whittier's poetic style resembles the Raven. Unfortunately, a lack of poetics is apparent since the example you cite is in ballad form, while the Raven is written in mostly trochaic octameter. Both poems use 8 syllables per line, but your cited example is clearly in iambic and only bares a basic similarity. I can see how on some level the repetitive rhyme scheme can evoke Poe's, but there's a greater complexity to Poe's poem because of the use of internal rhymes as well.