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quickly, however, and takes on the likeness, speech, passions, and wisdom of the deceased Morella, even as an infant. At the moment of her baptism, however, the daughter acknowledges that she is indeed Morella herself - "I am here!" - and then dies with the hues of death and glassy eyes, perhaps because the ceremony of baptism itself exorcises the demonic spirit of Morella. When he carries her to the crypt, his suspicions are confirmed when he finds that the body of Morella is missing from its tomb.

Note that the daughter was never named by her father until the fateful moment of baptism, when he impulsively named her "Morella." The name Lenore is not mentioned in that story, but it is not difficult to see the connection between the two names. Taking the first and last syllables of Morella yields "Lamor," a close enough match for "Lenore". It is also interesting to note that the root of "mor" is death, and after reversing the syllables the word is similar to the French for love. That is appropriate to the narrator's hatred for Morella and his love for his daughter, whom he is compelled to adore.

I have not seen a discussion that explains why Poe chose to have the narrator of "The Raven" ponder over "many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore." Why would this particular study help him with his sorrow? People have suggested he was using it as a distraction, or that the lore was actually poetry, but these words seem suspiciously precise and suggestive. Lore is not poetry nor fiction, but rather ancient information about how to do things. To me the only reason Poe would use this word is to leave a clue that the narrator was studying how to conjure the lost Lenore's soul by magic that he has found in ancient and forgotten writings, just as Morella studied how to return as her own daughter using the "mystical writings which are usually considered the dross of early German literature." This is reinforced by his wish in the second stanza that he may have "from my books surcease of sorrow." Significantly, he is not wishing for comfort or solace IN his pain, but rather an END to the pain and sorrow. How better to accomplish this than to conjure her back to earth? But in the second stanza he has given up, and longs for the morning, because his efforts were in vain. I see this as evidence that both he and the narrator in "Morella" were both students of the arcane, concerned with the persistence of identity after death.

Next, I refer you to the poem "Lenore," a tale

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