The Raven
"The Raven" is a poem about a student on a wild, thunderous, December night who is reading "curious volume of forgotten lore" all in an attempt to forget the loss of someone named Lenore, whom he loved very much. Suddenly, a raven taps at his window and for a wild moment he imagines it to be his lost love. Humored by himself and the ungainly look of the raven, he lets the bird in. Because the man is so depressed and wants to know more about his loss he asks his ebony-feathered friend several questions pertaining to Lenore. Every question he asks he gets the same reply, "Nevermore." Finally he asks the bird the ultimate question, "Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angles name Lenore" (93-94) At the foreknown answer of "Nevermore" he demands the raven depart and "Take thy beak from out my heart" (101) and of course the anticipated answer comes: "Nevermore". At this the student concludes that the shadow cast by this bird on his soul "shall b
Because the raven has an aura of wisdom about it, it helps to elaborate the idea that the man is also seeking knowledge about his lost love Lenore. The reason this poem is as popular as it is, is because it uses some exceptionally clever symbols, and all of these symbols help make the poem come off as an epic about death and solitude and for centuries people have loved to read about it. Why did Poe use a raven over all other possibilities? Firstly, he could never use a human, because a human could never keep repeating one word and still keep its human qualities. Another symbol that sets the eerie mood of the poem is Poe's use of "midnight dreary" (1) and "bleak December" (7). This helps dramatize the effect of death and solitude in the poem. An additional symbol is Poe's repetition of the word "Nevermore," which draws the reader into the story. These symbols dramatically help the reader feel as though he/she is right there with the main character feeling, seeing and above all thinking the same thing the main character . One of the darker symbols of the poem is the raven itself. It is also very interesting that the raven decides to perch on the bust of the Greek god of wisdom, Pallas. Some may inquire, "Why did he not use a parrot?" Well, the reason is that a parrot could not stay with the mood of the story; however a raven could, and a raven also has the ability to speak, or at least mimic speech. Repetition of sound emphasizes certain words, such as "Nevermore," which contribute to the general mood of the story. Also the month of December is a month when people prefer to stay inside alone. Therefore Poe had to choose to use a creature that did not have reasoning abilities but still had the capability of speech. In any book any one has ever read or scary movie any one has ever seen midnight is a dreadfully mysterious time of day, and is the time of day when evil beings are lurking around, such as the raven, "thing of evil!-prophet still if bird or devil!" December, on the other hand, represents an end of things and that change is about to happen, being that the month of December is the last month of the year and new-years is just around the corner. Midnight is a very dark time and helps set the poem in a dismal tone.
Common topics in this essay:
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Poe Raven,
mood story,
month december,
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main character,
month december month,
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poem raven,
death solitude,
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