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 lost Lenore" by burying himself in old books and trying to forget about her. But the Raven seems to him to be a messenger from the spirit world who has been sent there to keep reminding him of his loss. Instead of trying to forget about Lenore, he is forced to think about her more poignantly than he had been thinking before. So he imagines that her ghost has come back to visit him. He asks the Raven if there is "balm in Gilead," which is equivalent to asking if what the Bible has to say about immortality and resurrection has any truth and can offer him any comfort. But in the end he is defeated in his attempts to deal with his loss. This is symbolized by the Raven taking up a permanent station on the bust of Pallas and continuing to croak the single word "Nevermore." It seems as if the "rare and radiant" maiden the speaker loved so deeply has been replaced by a pet bird who is no comfort to him at all but a continual source of pain.

Like many of Poe's works, we find a character at odds with his own mind. Internal struggle is a classic theme in Poe works. The loss of Lenore is oppressing him psychologically, and the Raven's incessant cawing pushes the character into a crazed state.

The main conflict in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe is internal.  The conflict exists in the mind of the speaker as he faces the Raven and is driven by his grief to hear it speak his worst and most dreaded fears that he will "Nevermore" see his beloved Lenore.  Therefore, I believe it is pretty safe to say that the main conflict in the poem is internal.

The major conflict is within the narrator's mind.  He is so distraught by the loss of his love that it leads him to the brink of insanity.  He appears throughout the poem to be fighting with the raven, but in actuality, he is struggling within himself.  The raven's coincidental response just pushes him over the edge.

Explain the conflict in "The Raven" by Poe.

This question has been previously asked/answered right here on eNotes.  Here are a couple of links for you:

http://www.enotes.com/raven/q-and-a/what-conflicts-raven-how-does-soud-poem-effect-us-20807

http://www.enotes.com/raven/q-and-a/tags/conflict

http://www.enotes.com/raven/q-and-a/tags/conflicts+and+resolutions

Explain the conflict in "The Raven" by Poe.

The main conflict in the poem The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe, is the reality of the narrator versus what is going on in his mind. The poem is about the inability of letting go of the past. It is also about how we, as humans, tend to associate symbols, sounds, and ideas with the emotions that we feel at one particular moment.

Yet, in The Raven, the more the narrator tries to get rid of the memories of his lost love, the more he holds on to them, making it impossible for him to move on.

The narrator is a man who is isolated during the cold and dark month of December in, what seems to be, a cottage. He is obviously in mourning and going through a period of deep grief.

In the middle of his sadness he sees a black raven, who enters his place, and reminds him more of the sad memory of the loss of the love of his life. He compares the raven to many different things, but he certainly personifies it as a harborer of bad news. The bird is seemingly quite comfortable inside the cottage, and does not leave. This is interpreted by the narrator as an allegory to the memories that will not leave him either.

Therefore, this conflict between forgetting versus remembering and letting go versus keeping alive the memory, is what composes the main problem in the poem.

What are the conflicts and resolutions in Poe's "The Raven"?

Key to understanding this famous poem is establishing that it is the speaker of the poem that is creating the problems he is suffering for himself. Poe himself wrote that he was exploring through this poem one aspect of the dark side of human nature - "that species of despair which delights in self-torture." In other words, the narrator projects or puts onto the bird whatever his own wild imagination dredges up.

In terms of the conflict then, the conflict in this poem is decidedly an internal one, as we are presented with a frail and exhausted student working late at night mourning the loss of his love, Lenore. It is clear from the description in the first stanza that he is not in his right state of mind: he describes himself as "weak and weary" and tells us that he has dived into study and books to try and "borrow/From my books surcease of sorrow" for the "lost Lenore". He is basically trying to desperately forget his love for her and get over his grief. Thus, when the Raven appears, the narrator believes that this is some kind of external conflict between himself and the Raven who the narrator views as a messenger from hell or a demon who has come to taunt him with the impossibility of ever getting over his grief. However, what the narrator does not realise is that it is he that is driving this conflict - he is the one who is making the suggestions about the Raven. The Raven only gives one word in response, which the narrator interprets from his own perspective. For example, consider this stanza:

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -

By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore -

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore"

Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."

The narrator, knowing that the Raven has only spoken one word, asks it a question phrased in such a way that the inevitable response will plunge him ever further into his self-made abyss of despair and grief. It is this that reflects the true conflict in the poem which is only resolved by the plunge of the narrator into his despair from which he feels he can never escape.

What is the conflict in "The Raven"?

Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "The Raven", is focused on an inner conflict, the struggle of the narrator against his own sorrow and depression at the death of Lenore. The poem opens by describing the narrator's situation:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore

The terms "weak and weary" suggest that the narrator is suffering but is struggling to complete some intellectual project despite his depression. 

The bird that appears at his door is a large black raven, that can only croak a single word, "nevermore"; whether the bird really says "nevermore" or whether our unhappy narrator is ready meaning into a random croaking noise is uncertain. Although the narrator claims to understand that the bird is really just a bird and the the word "nevermore" merely a habitual answer, the narrator continues to ask the bird questions phrased in such a way that the answer "nevermore" seems to confirm his unhappy thoughts.

Although one could argue that on the surface there is a conflict between the narrator and the bird, the narrator doesn't take up a broom or long stick and try to drive the raven away; instead he has a conversation with it. In fact, the somewhat surreal description of the bird makes us as an audience wonder if it is real or merely a projection of the narrator's emotional state. Thus the central conflict is really between the narrator and despair. 

What are the different types of conflict in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe?

"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe is a poem in which the narrator, a student, sits alone mourning the death of his beloved Lenore. Because we do not have a full story with multiple characters, but only a dialogue between the narrator and the bird, there is really no sense of a traditional conflict between a protagonist and antagonist, unless one wants to consider the raven itself as an antagonist.

While it is true that the student is somewhat frustrated by the bird's one word vocabulary of "nevermore," the relationship between the raven and the student is really not one of true conflict but rather the student projecting his own despair onto the bird. The other struggle in which the student engages is with his own despair at the death of Lenore, but the actual event of her death occurs before the start of the poem. 

"The Raven" is a poem rather than a story, and, according to Poe's own "Philosophy of Composition," intended to illustrate a moment of intense of emotion rather than an extended narrative, and thus really has no need of a narrative conflict.

What are the setting and conflict in "The Raven"?

The physical setting of this poem is the narrator's den.  He describes this room only as a "chamber," but because it houses books and a bust of Athena, it seems to be a study of some kind (line 16).  In terms of time, the setting is late December, a "bleak" month that is often symbolic of the end of life because it is, literally, the end of the year (7).  Further, it is midnight, and a "dreary" one -- it is probably cold and windy and kind of creepy and bare outside (1).  Midnight is also often used as a symbol of death because it is the end, or death, of day.

The poem's conflict seems to be one of the character vs. Nature variety.  Although the raven could be viewed as an antagonist, I would argue that the raven doesn't really oppose the narrator in any way; he simply provides a catalyst for the narrator to begin to explore his feelings regarding death and what happens after it; this makes death the antagonist, and the raven is only a symbol of death.  The narrator immediately identifies the bird with death, saying that the raven has come from the "'Night's Plutonian shore,'" and he hopes that the bird was a gift from the angels to distract him and help him forget his "memories of Lenore" (47, 82).  Then, however, he fears that the bird is a "'thing of evil'" (85), and he wishes to know if there is some cure for his pain, for death.  Next, he asks the raven if, "'within the distant Aidenn,'" his soul will ever meet with Lenore again in heaven (93).  And though he believes that the bird will leave him as others "'have flown before,'" he eventually realizes that the bird is "never flitting" and will never leave (58, 103).  He can never forget that death is coming for him now that he has had such a brush with mortality, when his lover died, and so the bird that represents death will never leave him.  Thus, it is the narrator's own fears of death, his own as well as the permanence of his beloved's, that he must grapple with.