5. Lenore


Caspar David Friedrich Chapter 1 established that Guy de Vere is the Anglo-Irish poet Sir Aubrey de Vere, a highly respected author of Poe's day.

Dr. John Jebb 1 said of Sir Aubrey de Vere,

How deeply subservient he made his highly-gifted intellect to the best purposes of morality and Christianity; and this pious inclination increased with his years. His surely was a happy life in the best sense of the word.

(Limerick City Library)

Lenore is both the love of this pious poet and the lost love of the soliloquist in The Raven.

She must then represent a spiritual gift, grace, quality or virtue that De Vere is blessed with and the soliloquist no longer owns.

The pertinent clue is given on verses 3.3-4 of Lenore the poem,


The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside,
Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride—

The sweet Lenore is ascending to a golden throne beside the King of Heaven accompanied by Hope and by the baronet's love.

Therefore she must be a personification of Faith, the third member of the famous triad spelled out by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:13.



1 Dr. John Jebb (b. 1805, d. 1886) was an Anglo-Irish Anglican priest and writer on church music. In 1843 he was made rector of Peterstow, a village in Herefordshire, West England. In 1858 he was made prebendary of Hereford Cathedral.



Supplement to Lenore: Answers To Some Questions On The Raven