Edgar Allan Poe’s Marian Consecration: Catholic Eschatology, Mariology, and Liturgy in “Morella,” “The Raven,” and “Hymn”

Recent scholarly attempts to place Edgar Allan Poe in the nineteenth-century American mainstream have resulted in a renewed discussion of the religious in his works. While a recent article depicts Poe’s aesthetics as moderately Anglican, this study shows how Poe used Catholic eschatology, the study of the four last things; Mariology, teachings on the Virgin Mary; and liturgy, the rite of the Roman Catholic Mass and its extended prayers, in precise ways. While “Morella” and “The Raven” exhibit Poe’s reliance on Catholic elements to show the horror of inverting them, “Hymn” expresses the speaker’s hope that anyone could be brought by Mary to God. These conspicuous elements confirm Poe’s interest in Catholicism and call for a fresh valuation of Catholic aesthetics in his works.