The Night's Plutonian Shore

[bboyminn]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "P. Alexis Nguyen" <alexisnguyen at ...> wrote:
>
> Steve/bboyminn
> > The mystery is "...Night's Plutonian shore...". Now I
> > know that is something of a reference to hell, or to the
> > edge or shores of hell, but why is it capitalize the way
> > it is?
> 
> Ali:
> Pure speculation and having not used this particular portion
> of my brain for a few years ...
> 
> I would suspect that the death reference is in both Night
> and Plutonian, and both are referencing different ideas when
> it comes to death.  Night, I would venture is the "person" 
> in this, not Pluto, and I would rephrase the words into 
> something like "Hades' Styx shore," with Hades being the god
> and not the place  Does that make any sense?
> I'm sure it probably doesn't make much.
> 
> ...
> 

bboyminn:

I've read both your and Carol's explanations, and I'm still
not clear on the 'Night' part. 

How is 'night' any different than 'shore'. Sure 'night' has
symbolism, but in this case, so does 'shore'. 

Let me quote the instances again, so we are all on the same
page -

"Though thy crest be shorn and shave thou," I said, "art
sure no craven, ghastly, grim, and ancient raven, wandering
from the nightly shore. Tell me what the lordly name is on
the Night's Plutonian shore." (Verse 8)

Notice here in one sentence, he says 'nightly shore', and in
the next he says "Night's Plutonian shore'. 

Also notice that it is 'what THE lordly name is on THE
Night's Plutonian shore'. Not what YOUR name is but what
THE name is. Is he asking the name of the Raven. The
rest of the poem seems to imply that. 

Or, is he asking the Raven, greatly paraphrased, what is the
name of the God the dwells on the edges of hell? 

Finally, as the narrator grows more angry, in Verse 17, he
says -

"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked,
upstarting - 
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian 
shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul
hath spoken!"

Again, "Night's" is possessive, am I safe in assuming that?

Could we substitute 'Dark' or 'Darkness' for 'Night'?

Get they back into Dark's Plutonian shore. Has the author 
simple personified Darkenss and Night? And, since he is
treating concept of 'night' and 'darkness' as a named person,
does that explain the capitalization?

Is it, get the back into the Plutonian shore belonging to 
Night? Or get thee back into the domain belonging to 
Darkness or Night? 

One last very unlikely point; could this be a reference to 
another piece of literature? Could there be an author named
Night, who wrote something about the Plutonian shore? And so,
Poe would expect contemporary readers of the time to be 
familiar with this literary reference? 

Making the quotation, paraphrased, get thee back to the
Plutonian shore so aptly described by Night in his writings?

> 
> Steve/bboyminn
> > I suspect, in their day, many of these references we 
> > commonly known. But today, in a world of such great wit and
> > deep thinking as "C U L8R" and similar, few would have a 
> > clue.
> 
> Ali:
> First, took me 3 tries to figure out what "C U L8R" meant 
> ....  And it may just be a function of the types of people who
> I've had classes with all my life but more than a few of them
> would be able to speculate on the nature of "Night's Plutonium
> shore" much faster than figure out what "C U L8R" means.
> (For the record, I'm 26, ....
> ... 
>
> ~Ali, ...
>

bboyminn:

Ali, it is nice to know that there are a few young people in
the world that are capable of thoughts longer and deeper than
140 characters. 

Just curious, did anyone check out Homer Simpson's "The Raven"?
I think it was from one of their Holloween shows. I'm still
amazed at how well Homer does this. You would think his voice
was all wrong for such a serious poem, but, in my opinion,
he nails it. 

Still, no one beats James Earl Jones.

Steve/bluewizard