The Raven

At first the speaker does not take the Raven very seriously. He assumes it is a tame bird that somehow escaped from its owner and is only seeking temporary shelter. He describes it in a facetious...

Alliteration is the repetition of the initial consonant sound in words that are near one another. It is important to remember that it is the sound, not the spelling, that is important. So, when...

In the poem “The Raven,” Poe uses imagery through the image of the black bird, the raven. The bird’s presence and one word, which Poe references throughout the poem, symbolize death not only...

Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" is written in the first person and narrated by a young man mourning the death of his "lost Lenore." He appears melancholic by temperament as well as greatly...

“The Raven” contains several clues that tell the reader about the setting of the poem. They are found in stanzas 1, 2, 3, and 7. In the first stanza, the speaker provides the reader with the time:...

In Poe's "The Raven," the speaker begins the poem feeling depressed and lonely, mourning the loss of Lenore. In one of the early stanzas, the speaker confesses that he is in his study reading in...

Gothic fiction is typically characterized by mystery as well as elements of the supernatural, and "The Raven" in many ways contains both. First, the fact that the poem begins on a "midnight...

In the poem, the speaker moves from melancholy to outright despair. His initial sorrow looks to have been caused by Lenore's death; however, by the end of the poem, his unhappiness is caused by the...

In Poe's poem, the raven comes and sits on the bust of Pallas. A bust is a sculpture of the head and shoulders of a person. Pallas is another name for Athena, the goddess of wisdom. The raven...

But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling, Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door; Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy...

The conflict in Poe's poem is an internal one, as has been previously noted. Poe states the nature of this inner conflict early in the poem. He has been trying to achieve "surcease of sorrow for...

One main idea of "The Raven" is that grief is a haunting, maddening, and imprisoning experience. The speaker in this poem seems quite intelligent and well-read. He can reference all sorts of...

In Stanza 8 of "The Raven" the narrator is somewhat bemused by the ebony bird that flies in his window and perches in classical fashion upon the bust in his "chamber." At this...

Interestingly, the employment of personification enhances the haunting atmosphere of Poe's poem. For there is sound and sight movement like that of a something haunted directs itself toward the...

At the end of the poem “The Raven”, by Edgar Allan Poe, the speaker, in the lines: And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my...

The Raven is a very tightly organized poem. Consonance—the repetition of consonant sounds—is just one of the ways Poe's language is meant to evoke a feeling of hypnotic melancholy. Take, for...

One example of alliteration, the repetition of an initial consonant sound, occurs when the narrator says, "Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, / Doubting,...

Repetition in "The Raven" is used to create a sense of dread more than anything, though it also gives the reader a glimpse into the psychology of the poem's speaker, who is a grief-stricken man...

The raven initially symbolizes what Poe describes as "mournful, never-ending remembrance." The narrator's sorrow over his lost love Lenore provides the impetus for his unusual conversation with the...

"The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" are both poems by Edgar Allan Poe that address the desolation experienced by a man who has lost his love. In both of these poems, the speaker is experiencing profound...

Further examples of alliteration—the repetition of an initial consonant sound—include "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, / Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal...

The key part of stanza 11 is the following: what it utters is its only stock and store,Caught from some unhappy master In other words, the speaker, troubled by the appearance of the raven and its...

The theme of insanity is emphasized by elements defined by Gothic-era literature, particularly internal darkness (depression, previously termed melancholia), hallucinations, and a supernatural...

Onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like its meaning, such as bang, pop, or fizz. Using onomatopoeia in literature allows readers to hear the sounds of the words, which helps them become part of the...

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe creates an ominous atmosphere for this eerie tale of the ebony bird who visits the narrator. The narrator has recently lost his love—Lenore. He is in a dark place...

In addition to its meditation on mortality, “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe also examines communication—both its possibilities and its limitations. “The Raven” is an example of Romanticism, a...

When someone loses a person he loves dearly, the thought inevitably occurs that he will never see that person again throughout eternity, either in the flesh or in the hereafter. When King Lear is...

"And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor." This metaphor is the same idea as the idiom "giving up the ghost." The death of the embers is like a person...

There are, indeed, examples of dramatic irony in Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, although the situational irony in Poe's famous poem is, to this educator, more pronounced. Situational irony refers to...

Point of view is the "eye" through which a story is told. The narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" uses the words "I," "me," and "my" throughout the poem, indicating that the poem is told...

The mood created at the beginning of "The Raven" is one of mystery and sadness with undertones of horror. Poe accomplishes this through the Gothic setting, characterization, and poetic sound...

The second stanza is telling the reader that the speaker is recalling a gloomy December day or evening. While he was sitting in his study, the fire that he had in his fireplace was dying out and...

As this is English, it does not need to be translated, but I will reword the 9th stanza to you. Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,Though its answer little meaning -...

Many words could be used to describe the mood in Edgar Allan Poe's brilliant poem "The Raven." In a single word, it can be considered "Gothic," which you can read more about in the link below. More...

Toward the end of the poem, the speaker wants the raven to offer him some comfort. He asks, "'is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!'" Balm of Gilead was a rare medicinal perfume...

An interesting question. You could make a fair argument for both answers, particularly because Poe is of course a writer who delights in the supernatural: things often appear in his works which do...

At the end of Poe’s “The Raven”, the character demands that the bird depart because of the stress it is causing him. The bird, the moment of the protagonist’s profound anguish and despair, simply...

Edgar Allan Poe uses both internal and external rhyming patterns in “The Raven.” In general, internal rhyme occurs when the middle word of a line rhymes with the ending word of the same line. Poe...

The narrator of the poem is surprised by the bird when it comes into his chamber. First, the presence of the black bird is imposing and unsettling; then, the one word it speaks, “nevermore,” throws...

Edgar Allan Poe was the master of using symbols in his writings. They symbols always represented something else. Poe could have certainly used another animal in the story, but the effect wouldn't...

The speaker issues not only a single instruction but a litany of orders in the penultimate stanza: "Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting— “Get thee back...

There is something grandiose about the word surcease as it rings of Milton, or Shakespeare, or even Yeats. The effort required to terminate sorrow, even as great as it may be, is usually an effort...

Ultimately, what the narrator asks of the raven in this poem is that it leave him in peace. He says, "Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a...

"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe opens with the narrator trying unsuccessfully to distract himself from thinking about how sad he is over the death of his beloved Lenore. He briefly smiles when he is...

In the seventh stanza, the speaker describes the raven as "stately" and as having the "mien of lord or lady." In other words, the bird has a certain elegance and holds itself as though it were of...

The Raven (maintaining Poe's use of capitalization in the poem) perches on a bust of Pallas Athena, often just referred to as Pallas. This is not an accidental landing spot, and it represents at...