The Lake

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe (1845)

While “The Lake” is a lesser-known, early poem of Poe’s, “The Raven” is Poe’s most famous poem. It has been referenced widely in movies, television, and other media. “The Raven” is much longer than “The Lake,” both in line length and number of stanzas. However, both poems include terror and loneliness. In “The Raven,” the speaker experiences “fantastic terrors” (Line 14). These can be compared to the “terror” in “The Lake,” which was “not fright, / But a tremulous delight” (Lines 13-14). Both poems are interested in Hauntology and the Supernatural. Additionally, the speaker of “The Raven” says, “Leave my loneliness unbroken!” (Line 100). Loneliness is desired in both poems. In “The Lake,” the speaker loves “the loneliness / Of a wild lake” (Lines 4-5).

“Ulalume” by Edgar Allan Poe (1847)

Both “Ulalume” and “The Lake” feature a dim lake. However, the one mentioned in “Ulalume” is the “dim lake of Auber” (Line 6). “Ulalume” is another poem by Poe that includes terror. Psyche “[i]n terror [...] spoke” (Line 56) before reaching the tomb of Ulalume. This tomb can be compared to the “grave” (Line 19) in “The Lake.” Furthermore, “The Lake” and “Ulalume” both include the theme of Hauntology and the Supernatural. In “Ulalume,” the speaker calls the region around the lake of Auber the “ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir” (Line 9). This haunting can be compared with the “haunt” (Line 2) in “The Lake.”

“A Ballad: The Lake of the Dismal Swamp” by Thomas Moore (1803)

Both Moore and Poe wrote about a lake in the Great Dismal Swamp. Moore’s poem, however, preceded Poe’s by 20 years. It is a more direct retelling of the ghost story associated with the location than “The Lake” by Poe. Moore describes how a female ghost “paddles her white canoe” (Line 5). His poem is part of the folklore that surrounds the area, which includes various stories about the Phantom Lovers of the lake. In Moore’s version of the ghost story, the lover goes after the ghost of his dead fiancée and, in the end, both lovers end up paddling the canoe together as spirits. Poe references this ghost story with diction like “grave” (Line 19)—a word that appears in both poems—but does not include as many narrative details as Moore.