What does the name Lenore represent in Poe's the raven and Lenore. Is there any Greek Godesses or other literary characters named Lenore. I found another poem called Lenore by Göttfried August Bürger. What does the name mean?

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

Answers

hello my teacher explained this same question a few weeks ago. edgar allan poe didn't really have a specific reason for choosing the name "lenore" for "the raven." he says that in almost all of his poems the different names of the women in his poems are just chosen to fit the rhythm, the sound, the feel, even just to rhyme with his lines ... this is the example he gave us ... "what other names could possobly go with poe's repitition of "nevermore" ... besides lenore?" ... eleanor? personally i think if he could he'd name his poems after his love virginia.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001

Poe wrote a very revealing essay, The Philosophy of Composition, where he discusses in detail how he approached writing The Raven.

The answer already given, that the name Lenore was chosen purely for its sound and its rhyming with "nevermore", is almost certainly correct. If the name of the matchless maiden hadn't rhymed with "nevermore", Poe would have had to resort to some very awkward devices to work around this deficiency.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

The answers above are the best explanation. I'd like to add, though, that "Lenore" derives from Greek for "flame"- ---as do the names Helen & Eleonora---both names of heroines dear to Poe. Poe also seemed to like names signifiying "light" : Ulalume, and the name of his favorite tale, Ligeia.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2003

lenora, whatever the name itself may mean, is used in refrance to his wife, whom i believed was dead at the time.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2004

whatever the name itself may mean, it is used in refrance to his wife, whom i believed was dead at the time.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2004