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 high status and privilege. In the eighth stanza, the bird is said to be "ebony" and "beguiling" as well as "grave and stern"; the narrator is fascinated by the bird's serious and somber demeanor. In the ninth stanza, he describes the bird as "ungainly" and a few stanzas later, he calls it "grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous"; in other words, then, the bird is kind of frightening and awkward and strange and menacing—the word "ominous" implies that the narrator sees the bird as an omen of sorts, perhaps something associated with the supernatural. The narrator feels as though the bird knows something he does not. Later, still, he calls the bird a "prophet" and seems to believe that it does bring him some kind of news from the underworld or afterlife, or even the devil.

Some descriptive words about the bird in "The Raven" include grim, stern, ebony [black], ancient and ghastly. The bird is also described more than once as still and unmoving, standing without a feather fluttering. All of these words accumulate to paint a picture of a severe, forbidding and majestic bird. He almost seems to be a person: perhaps a bit like a rigid, unsmiling man with black hair. This is no chirping, twittering, friendly little songbird. The raven instead contains elements of the sublime, a style popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and characterized by evoking emotions of mingled awe and terror. In the end, the raven, with its grim aspect, demonic eyes and the dark shadow it casts has an oppressive effect on the narrator.