How do literary elements heighten the impact of a poem?I stumbled upon a website that was all about The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. This question was...

Poe uses literary elements quite effectively to develop
the mood of this poem. Poe is often credited with being one
of the fathers of mystery and of Gothic literature. This particular poem creates a
hysteria and maddening mood that makes us feel that the speaker is going
crazy.

So, what are some of the elements he uses to create
this impact of crazed mystery and hysteria?

The
repetition, rhyme,
meter, and rhythm of each
stanza feels so patterned that it draws the reader in. When authors go to the trouble to
plan out meter and rhyme, it impresses the reading audience and we often wonder what is
next or how the author is going to wrap up a topic or stay on topic while employing all
of those devices at once.

Once upon a midnight
dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of
forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of
some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door— “'Tis some visitor,” I muttered,
“tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing
more.”

Looking at the text of this first stanza,
the internal rhyme of the first line and the napping, rapping, and tapping impress us.
This also follows a story form or plot. We can tell he was
feeling a little creeped out, he was beginning to fall asleep reading a book, and this
all of the sudden, someone knocked on the door. This image
of someone in between sleep and wakefulness also contributes to the mood because we can
all relate to that time, it is like being awake during a dream. Since we relate, the
impact on us is strong. Sometimes our minds play tricks on us during that time. Finally,
Poe uses simile, metaphor and allusion throughout the rest of the poem to again help us
relate to the feelings he is trying to describe. Because these are comparisons, we can
relate. By the end of the poem, we can tell he's been freaked out by this Raven that
must represent something from his past which haunts him. We all have similar moments of
pain in our own pasts that help us relate. It may not be the loss of a loved one, but we
all know pain and can feel his because of these uses of literary
elements.