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...

One metaphor appears in the second stanza of the poem, when the speaker says, of the remnants of a fire in the grate, that "each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor" (line 8)....

The first time the raven says "Nevermore," it is apparently in answer to the narrator asking its name. The second time, the word comes after the narrator reflects that the raven will soon leave...

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

Because the presence of the raven causes the speaker to think of his unknown eternity, potentially without his "lost Lenore," the speaker grows increasingly frantic and forlorn. In the beginning of...

The tone of a poem is the attitude the speaker takes toward the subject. In "The Raven," Poe crafts a speaker who sits alone on a bleak December evening, missing his lost Lenore. This speaker is so...

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...

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...

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...

My comment is brief, but I want to make it anyway. "Nevermore" is the central word of the poem, if we go by Edgar Allan Poe's 1846 essay, "The Philosophy of Composition." In this essay he writes...

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...

“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:...

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...

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...

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...

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...

"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...

There is also a great deal of internal rhyme in the poem. Internal rhyme was a common device among 19th-century poets, such as Poe, in which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with one at the...

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...

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...

“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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

"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...

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...

In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," the stanzas begin subtlely and rise in a crescendo of emotional tension and strained reasoning that certainly connote the psychological change in the speaker....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

As with many of Edgar Allen Poe's works, "The Raven" depends for its effects on creating a distinct atmosphere of gloom, melancholy, and foreboding. This atmosphere is evoked in three ways, by the...

In literature, tone refers to the way the author feels about the subject of the work. In this particular poem, Poe seems to sympathize with the narrator. The speaker has endured a terrible...

The speaker in "The Raven" asks the bird if there's anything that will ease his heartache, and if there's any chance he'll see his lost love in the afterlife. Let's check out the details of these...

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...

Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven is considered a classic of gothic literature. A man, probably of middle age, sits alone in his well-adorned library one cold, "bleak December" evening, and...

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...

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 -...

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 word that best describes the mood in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is "uncanniness." The word "uncanniness" describes a feeling of fear combined with wonder aroused by something potentially...

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...

The eponymous raven doesn't mean anything by its constant, annoying refrain of “Nevermore.” But because the speaker is in such a fraught mental state, he takes it to heart, reflecting as it does...

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 time of year in which Poe's poem "The Raven" is set is quite clear, but the narrator's description of the weather is contradictory. The narrator clearly states that the event occurred in "the...