around him to air that is "perfumed from an unseen censer" (79). The air seems, to him, to grow denser around him as he considers that he will never seeLenore again, and he compares it to incense-perfumed air that feels as though it has weight.

The speaker uses another metaphor when he compares the raven's appearance to a "kind nepenthe" sent by God to distract the speaker from his grief (83). Nepenthe is a drug that would do away with one's grief or sadness (from Homer's Odyssey); thus, the speaker compares the bird's strange appearance to such a drug.

The speaker employs a simile in his description of the raven's speech. He says that the raven speaks "as if his soul in that one word he did outpour" (56). The speaker suggests that the raven speaks the word "nevermore" with such feeling and significance that it seems as though it comes directly from his soul (though the speaker knows that this cannot be true).

Late in Poe’s career "The Raven" made him popular.  It was reported that children would chase Poe around until he would turn toward them, raise his arms and yell "Nevermore." As far as your question is concerned, yes there are examples of similes and metaphors in “The Raven.”  There are also examples of personification and alliteration.   “Quoth the Raven ‘Nevermore’” (Raven: 48) is one example of personification.  Birds can’t really speak so the fact that Poe gave the raven a voice is personification.  The raven says “Nevermore.”  A very good example of a metaphor is “And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming.”  In this quote Poe is comparing the raven’s eyes to a demon.  An example of a simile is when he uses a comparison to express the narrator’s grief to the raven’s reply to him.   “That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.” (Raven: 56)   I hope this helps.

"Final associations of the bird with evil occur in the words “demon” and “shadow.” The connection between the Raven’s “shadow” and the speaker’s “soul” in the last line of the poem suggests that the speaker believes himself to be cursed by the bird’s presence."

SIMILES. 

• "...suddenly there came a tapping,
  As of some one gently rapping...“ (Lines 3-4).
      It compares the tapping (of the raven) with that of a human tapping.
• "But the Raven... spoke only
  That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did 
      outpour. (Lines 55-56)
      The Raven's one word ("forevermore") is compared with the total outpouring of the human soul.
• "On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have
      flown before.”  (Lines 59-60)
      The Raven's imminent departure is compared to the narrator's previously disappearing hopes.
• "Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul
      hath spoken!  (Line 99)
      The Raven's black feather is compared to a token reminder of the lie it has told.

There are many similes and metaphors in The Raven. Remember that both similes and metaphors are comparisons, but a simile uses the words "like" or "as" and a metaphor does not. Metaphors are harder to find, but if you find words that are describing one thing by creating a picture of something else, that is probably a metaphor. For example, in this poem:

Metaphor: And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor........the author is talking about the fire dying out, but to him it looks like a ghost on the floor. He doesn't say "the fire looks like a ghost" because if he did, it would be a simile.

Simile: suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping - the author is comparing the tapping sound that he hears to someone gently knocking (rapping) on his door, and yet it is not someone knocking, but it sounds like someone knocking.

There are more metaphors than similes in this poem. This should get you started on trying to pick them out!

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 you are trying to identify alliteration, one way to go about it is to read the lines aloud slowly, exaggerating the first sound in each word.  Listen for any repetition of sounds and make note of them.

In the third stanza, the first two lines read, "And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain / Thrilled me -- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before."  There is alliteration of the "s" sound that begins silken and sad.  There is also alliteration of the "f" sound that begins filled, fantastic, and felt.  Both the "s" and the "f" sound are made by blowing air between the lips and teeth, and because of this they both sound sort of windy and elusive.  Given that the lines are describing the blowing of the curtains and the effect their rustling has on the narrator, it makes sense that the alliteration in these lines would echo both the blowing of the wind as well as the elusiveness and strangeness of the feelings provoked in the narrator.

In the fifth stanza, the first two lines read, "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, / Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before."  There is quite a bit of alliteration in these two lines with the "d" sound.  The repeated "d" sound in the first three words of the second line sounds especially hard, one right after the other.  In this way, Poe seems to draw extra attention to these words.

"The Raven," by Edgar Allan Poe, consists of 18 stanzas.  Each stanza contains numerous examples of alliteration; that is, of words in close proximity that begin with the same consonant sound.

I will give some examples from the first few stanzas; after that, you should find it quite easy to find more examples on your own.

Stanza 1: once (pronounce "wuns"), weak, weary

               nodded,nearly, napping

Stanza 2: surcease of sorrow

               rare and radiant

Stanza 3: filled, fantastic, felt

               still, stood

What is the "action," or purpose, of all this alliteration?  Poets use alliteration for a variety of reasons. 

Sometimes, they just enjoy the sound. 

Other times, alliteration serves to focus the reader's attention on a particular phrase.  For example, in the third line of "The Raven," Poe may have wanted to stress the idea that he had been falling asleep before the raven knocked on his door; thus, he used alliteration:

While I nodded, nearly napping...

Occasionally a poet may use alliteration to create an onomatopoetic effect--that is, so the words will sound like the idea or action that they represent.  In a translation of Dante's "Inferno," there is a line that reads:

I saw it there, but I saw nothing in it, except the rising of the boiling bubbles.

The repetition of the "b" sound in "boiling bubbles" sounds a little bit like actual boiling water (see link below).

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 obsessed both with the woman he has lost and the question of life after death.

Initially, the most obvious repetition in the poem is the speaker wondering about the cause of the rapping at his chamber door:

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“'Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—Only this and nothing more.”

Here, the speaker is trying to reassure himself that everything is okay. He is not convinced that this is true, and usually repeating a mantra or thought can have a calming effect. The speaker repeats this general line of thought throughout much of the first section of the poem before the raven itself starts chipping away at his fragile sense of security.

Another instance of repetition occurs with the constant invoking of the name Leonore. This repetition shows the speaker's obsession with his lost love. She utterly dominates his thoughts.

The most famous repetition in the poem is the raven's repeated "nevermore." Blunt and harsh, the constant repetition of "nevermore" drives the speaker to despair over the hope of being reunited with Leonore in a possible life after death. Depending upon one's interpretation of the speaker's character and the nature of the raven itself, the speaker is either having his hopes crushed or his unspoken convictions brought into the open. At any rate, the repetition has all the force of a hammer constantly driving a nail deeper into a wall: the poem ends with the speaker himself saying he will not recover from his grief, repeating the raven's "nevermore" himself. Repetition, which was initially used as a comfort, has now driven the speaker into total despair.

In the first stanza, the narrator says,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

The repetition of the "-ing" suffix in napping, tapping, and rapping helps to establish a kind of hypnotic sound, especially the repetition of the word rapping, used twice consecutively in the second line above. Repetition like this, in conjunction with the steady meter of the poem—trochaic octameter—lulls us and spooks us a little at the same time.

In the second stanza, the narrator repeats the word sorrow, again, twice consecutively on the same line. Here, the repetition seems to draw attention to the narrator's fragile emotional state on this particularly bleak December night.

In the third stanza, almost an entire line is repeated when the narrator says,

"Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;
This it is and nothing more."

Here, the repetition makes it seem as though the narrator is unsure and attempting, by repeating, to reassure himself that everything is all right and there is nothing to fear from the tapping on the door.

In the fifth stanza, the word word is repeated three times and the word whispered repeated twice when the narrator says,

And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"

The breathiness of the repeated "w" sound in these two words occurs five times in these two lines, and the soft, windy sound seems to echo the content of what the narrator is saying.

Let's begin with a definition of an "allusion."  An allusion is a a reference in a literary work that references something else without saying so directly.  Often (but not always), allusions are cultural or political references. (It can sometimes be difficult to "get" these types of allusions when they are no longer culturally relevant.)  

However, allusions in Western literature will often be to mythology, the Bible, and other well-known works of literature. This is the case in Poe's classic poem "The Raven."

The first allusion in the poem is a nod to mythology. In line 41, the speaker notices the raven, "Perched upon a bust of Pallas."  "Pallas" is "Pallas Athena," the Greek goddess of wisdom.  The fact that the raven chooses to sit there, upon her head, rather than anywhere else in the room, might be interpreted in a couple of ways. First, it might be taken ironically.  The bird only seems to know one word.  The speaker may be attributing, in his idolatry of Lenore, more wisdom to her than she deserves.  Or it might be positive, in that both Lenore and Pallas are wise. Both are certainly worshiped. 

Another mythological allusion occurs in line 47, in which the speaker demands of the raven to "Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"  Pluto is the Greek god the Underworld.  The underworld, (also known as Hades or Hell) is perpetually dark. The darkness here works as a metaphor for the speaker's state of mind which is filled with thoughts of death. 

The word "shore" may also be an allusion to the River Styx, which existed between the Earth and the Underworld. The river was piloted by Charon, the ferryman who carried recently-deceased souls from the earthly shore to that of the Underworld. This too makes sense, given the speaker's internal torment. 

Line 80 contains a biblical illusion. The air in the speaker's bedroom becomes oppressive and he senses that it was emanating from a "perfumed from an unseen censer / Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor." In the Hebrew Bible, these creatures are six-footed and winged. They continuously fly around God's throne, saying only one word in repetition: "Holy, holy, holy!"  In this way, they have something in common with the winged raven, whose single word is "nevermore." Like Pallas Athena, however, the allusion might be negative and not positive. Although the seraphim are holy and perfumed, the sense is that they are oppressive, not comforting. 

Another biblical illusion is found in line 89. The speaker cries out, saying, "is there no balm in Gilead?" This is from Jeremiah 8:22: "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?"  The "balm of Gilead" is a real thing. Mentioned several times in the Bible, it is made from the gum of a bush that grows plentifully in Gilead (an area East of the Jordan River.) It is rather an all-purpose healing compound, used to treat a variety of ailments, from cuts, to bruises, to burns.  In addition to its medicinal uses, the "balm" is also meant to be understood spiritually, something to soothe one's emotional wounds.  Clearly, the speaker here is seeking the spiritual comfort such a balm would bring. 

"Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my
          chamber door—"

Pallas = Pallas Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom

"Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell
          me, I implore!"

"Balm in Gilead" refers to a place in the Holy Land called Gilead. An old saying, "Is there no Balm in Gilead?" is simply asking whether or not there is anything that can bring comfort to a person.

Poe uses several kinds of figurative language in "The Raven." One can find personification, the attribution of human qualities to something that is not human, when the speaker says, "each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor." This is figurative because embers do not literally die, they cannot intentionally shape or create anything, and they do not have ghosts. Poe also uses personification in the description of "the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain." He describes the rustling of the curtains as sad and uncertain, emotions that curtains cannot feel because they are not human. Later, the speaker personifies the raven itself, claiming that it has the "mien of lord or lady" and seems to act as though it is quite proper and even somewhat conceited.

When the speaker describes the "soul within [him] burning," this is figurative as well because one's soul cannot literally burn. In fact, the concept of the soul often functions as a metaphor for consciousness, as it appears to here. The speaker has opened the door of his chamber, having heard a knock, and no one is there. He calls the name of his deceased lover, Lenore, and hears the word echoed back. He may be "burning" with vain hope or curiosity or a wish to see her, and so Poe uses metaphor to describe these feelings, implicitly likening them to a fire.

The speaker uses another metaphor when he describes the sudden "perfumed" scent to "nepenthe" that he might "quaff." This metaphor is also an allusion to the Odyssey, as nepenthe refers to a drug that makes a person forget their grief and sadness. He hopes, for a moment, that some merciful God has sent him this scent to distract him from his sadness. There are further allusions when the speaker references "the Night's Plutonian shore," or the underworld from Greek mythology; "Aidenn," or paradise in biblical theology; and a potential "balm in Gilead," or a universal cure.

It is often said, when analyzing poems, that alliteration is the effect created by using successive words beginning with the same first letter, which is true, but which does not actually identify why the poet has chosen to use this technique or what effect is derived from it. A clue when we are trying to understand this is to identify which letters are being used alliteratively, and what difference this makes. For example, alliteration on the letter "s" creates a sibilant, snakelike quality and suggests whispering; in the same way, the letters which alliterate here give different sound effects and suggest different images to the reader.

The repeated "n" sound, for example, is staccato in a way that seems to imitate the nodding the speaker is doing as he tries to stay away, "nearly napping": it seems to evoke the feeling of one's head drooping forward and then being jolted to alertness again. The "n" sound is also contrasted directly, through the use of rhyme, with the "t" in "tapping." "T" is a very clear and sharp sound which seems to evoke the feeling of being pulled back sharply to alertness.

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in words that are close to each other in the text. Here the words "nodded, nearly napping" all begin with the /n/ sound, and the three words occur in sequence. The alliteration ties the three words together by their first sound. The /n/ sound is a soft, smooth sound; it is a nasal consonant. To make the /n/ sound, air is stopped from coming out of the mouth because of where the tongue is placed and is forced to come out of the nose. Interestingly, this sound is the same sound that someone might make inadvertently while sleeping--a deep breathing sound that is not quite a snore. So using the repeated /n/ sound to describe someone who is about to fall asleep helps the reader experience that state simply through the sounds of the words. In addition, the fact that the three words have identical rhythm--a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable--reinforces the effect. One can almost feel the sensation of the man's head starting to droop and the man catching it with each new stressed /n/ syllable. The use of alliteration and rhythm in this way helps the reader enter into the mood and action of the poem.

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, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before" (25-26). The repetition of the hard "d" sound in these two lines helps to enhance the ominous mood generated by the meaning of the words. The narrator is nervously staring into the darkness, a somewhat foreboding action, and the repetition of the "d" sound is foreboding as well. This increases tension for the reader.

Another example of alliteration actually occurs in the same stanza: "And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, 'Lenore!' / This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, 'Lenore!'" (28-29). The repetition of the much softer "w" sound, especially after the harsh series of "d" sounds, is much gentler, just as a whisper would be. The transition from a hard, ominous sound to a soft, sort of creepy sound enhances the silence of the scene and the awe of the narrator when he opens the door to nothing and hoped it was the soul of his lost lover. This would likewise serve to increase suspense, as character and reader both await whatever is in the darkness.

One example of assonance relies on the repetition of the long "a" sound, which slows down the pace of the poem and emphasizes the odd behavior of the bird: "In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore; / Not the least obeisance made he; not an instant stopped or stayed he; / But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door" (38-40). Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds, and when a poet uses long vowel sounds over and over again, it has the effect of slowing the pace because those sounds take longer to say. This assonance, then, slows down the poem's pace and lends a musical quality to the lines that seems to enhance those lines' meaning.

Another example of assonance occurs in the first stanza, when the narrator says, "While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, / As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door" (3-4). The short "a" sound (as in the word "napping") has the opposite effect of the long vowels I mentioned above. Since the short vowel sounds take less time to say, they have a tendency to seem to speed things up, which makes sense given the meaning of these words. The tapping and rapping come unexpectedly, and the quickness of the repeated short "a" sound mimics the abrupt manner in which the action occurs in the poem.  

One of the themes in Poe's "The Raven" is alienation and loneliness. This is a result of the speaker's loss of Lenore. 

The literary device that most conveys this theme is repetition.

The name "Lenore" is used over and over again. So the reader is acutely aware of the speaker's sense of love. "Nothing more" is also repeated at the end of six stanzas. It seems to refer to the lack of some thing. For instance:

‘Tis the wind and nothing more!

There is nothing outside to create the tapping at the window: only the wind. At the end of another stanza, there is only an echo of the speaker's words:

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the
          word, “Lenore!”
     Merely this and nothing more.

The idea of nothing more can also infer that with Lenore gone, there is nothing else..."nothing more." Soon this phrase is replaced with the repetition of "Nevermore." This also alludes to the loss of Lenore, but here we can sense an even deeper sense of loss that will last for the rest of the speaker's life. He will never see her or hold her again.

The sense of isolation is also found in other repetitions of similar sounds. One device that reflects this is onomatopoeia, which is the use of a word that represents a sound. In this case, we hear "rapping" and "tapping." The words stand out because there is no other sound. The house is empty except for the speaker. There is no family about, no bustle of servants, no barking of dogs. The silence is overwhelming, so the noise at the window or door likely rings through the empty house. Even the manner in which the speaker talks is described using onomatopoeia—and again reflects the absence of caring enough to rouse himself when he "muttered." These kinds of words convey emptiness and loneliness.

There are more literary devices that depend on sound: one in particular is alliteration. This is the repetition of a sound at the beginning of words clustered together. One instance occurs at the beginning of the poem:

...weak and weary...

Here the "w" sound is repeated. It is not just that the letters are the same—the sound is the same, and this is crucial!! The sound of the "w's" used supports the sense of the reader's lack of energy, perhaps even interest. It makes one feel the author's despondency and aloneness.

Alliteration is found again in the following phrase, and this example also gives the sense of despondency—note the repetition of the "n" sound:

...nodded, nearly napping

The final eleven stanzas leave the reader (using repetition) with the sense of abject misery and loneliness with the use of the word "Nevermore." However, as the poem has continued, the reader understands that while the speaker is devastated by the loss of Lenore, he has come to feel comfortable in that aloneness. He would rather be alienated from the world and live alone to contemplate life's emptiness than to live out in society to be forever reminded of the absence of his love in his daily routine. He lives secluded and alone, with only sounds echoing through his house—and his heart, to remind him that Lenore is lost to him forever.

In this poem, there is a great deal of sound repetition, and this repetition has a number of interesting effects on the reader.

For example, there is the poem's perhaps most immediately recognizable sound device, end rhyme; lines 2, 4, and 5 of each stanza contain end rhyme (when the final word of each line rhymes with the other final words).  In the first stanza, then, the words "lore" (line 2), "door" (4), and "door (5) rhyme. 

Further, each stanza also contains internal rhyme, and this is when there are two or more rhyming words within the same line.  Internal rhyme occurs in line 3 of each stanza.  In the first stanza, then, on the third line, "napping" and "tapping" rhyme; in the second stanza, on the ninth line, "morrow" and "borrow" rhyme, and so on. 

But there's more!  In the first stanza, "napping" and "tapping" (3) also rhyme with "rapping" in the middle of the next line (4), and this pattern continues as well; in the second stanza, "morrow" and "borrow" (9) also rhyme with "sorrow" on line 10.  Pretty cool, right? 

The effect of all this rhyme is rather hypnotic.  Whenever a poet trains our ears to expect end rhyme (which Poe does here with its uniformity throughout the entire poem), a poem can take on a somewhat predictable quality, almost as though it lulls us into a sense of security because we can kind of know what sounds are going to come next.  Further, all of the internal rhymes in the third lines and rhymes of those words with a word on the fourth line of each stanza have a similar effect.  We can count on those words rhyming in this poem because they always do, and so we almost feel as though we are also being rocked to sleep by the repetition of these sounds.  Then, when the content and emotion of the poem begins to contrast with these feelings -- either by being completely mysterious (as when the narrator hears a phantom knock at his door) or completely strange (when he begins to suspect that the raven is a messenger from the devil), we are jarred all the more by the discrepancy between the predictability of the sounds with the unpredictability of the meaning.  After a while, because the sounds are predictable and consistent, and because the "plot" of the poem is so weird, they begin to sound kind of creepy, almost chant-like in their repetition. 

One way that we learn about our narrator is through his use of allusions.  Allusions are references to other texts, places, people, or events that bring richness and nuance to a text.  In this case, the allusions used by the narrator show us what a well-read and intelligent person he is, and they help us to understand why he would consider the raven's meaning and provenance so deeply.  Further, they help us to know that he is not some blindly superstitious person -- he is thoughtful and bright -- and so Poe discourages us from simply discounting his ponderings as the ravings of a mournful and distraught man. 

The narrator refers to death as "Night's Plutonian shore"; by this, he is using the Roman name of the god of the dead, lord of the underworld, Pluto (Hades in Greek).  He's also referred to "Pallas" -- Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and war.  Further, he refers to "nepenthe," the Greek word meaning a medicine for sorrow, like an antidepressant to help a person to forget their sadness.  He speaks of a "balm in Gilead," referring to a universal cure for pain and/or death.  Finally, he speaks of "Aidenn," the Arabic word for Paradise (compare to the word "Eden" from the Bible).  References like this -- from Greek and Roman mythology, the Bible, and Arabic -- tell us a great deal about our narrator and help us to understand how Poe wants us to think of him.

The first allusion in the poem is in the seventh stanza, when the speaker remarks that the raven "perched upon a bust of Pallas." Pallas is an epithet for Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. When the raven perches upon the bust of Athena, it becomes associated with the wisdom associated with the bust. This emphasizes the speaker's impression that the raven has some sort of otherworldly wisdom to impart.

The second allusion is in the eighth stanza, when the speaker insists that the raven must have originated from "the Night's Plutonian shore." This is an allusion to Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld, and thus the speaker's meaning is that the raven is evil.

In the fourteenth stanza, the speaker speculates that the raven has been sent with "nepenthe." This is an allusion to a fictional drug from Ancient Greece, a drug which could supposedly induce forgetfulness. This particular allusion helps us to understand the degree of the speaker's sadness. Throughout the poem, he has been mourning for his "lost Lenore," and in this stanza he speculates, hopefully, that the raven might have brought him a drug to help him forget about her.

The fourth allusion in the poem is in the fifteenth stanza. Here the speaker begs the raven, who he assumes is in possession of some manner of supernatural wisdom, to tell him whether there exists a "balm in Gilead." This is a biblical allusion, and has come to denote a medicine that can cure any illness. The speaker wants to know if such a balm exists, because he is of course desperate to find a cure for the suffering he endures in the absence of his "lost Lenore."

Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven” has many allusions to his other poem “Lenore.” Read both texts carefully, and you will notice a few things.

In “The Raven,” the narrator is alone in his study, trying to forget his grief by immersing himself in his books. This is a vain attempt; he can’t escape his sorrow. In the second stanza, at line 10, the narrator makes the source of his suffering clear: “sorrow for the lost Lenore.”

The name of Lenore is used repeatedly throughout the poem. In the fifth stanza, before the narrator has encountered the raven, he peeks into the darkness and believes he hears the whispered name Lenore. In the fourteenth and sixteenth stanzas, the name Lenore is repeated as the narrator seeks respite from his memories of Lenore and then asks the raven if he will be united with her in heaven. The narrator’s grief and torment at the heart of “The Raven” stems from his loss of Lenore.

In the poem “Lenore,” Lenore is portrayed as a noble woman who died at a young age. The final line of the poem asserts that she has gone “to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven.” In “The Raven,” the narrator also refers to the fact that Lenore is young by calling her a maiden and to the belief that Lenore exists now in heaven. Lines 94 and 95 read:

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.

In Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "The Raven," the two poetic elements he uses more than any other would be repetition and rhyme. Onomatopoeia would be a close third, I would think.

We see repetition in:

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--

...with "at my chamber door." And of course, "nothing more" and "Evermore."

Rhyme is used a great deal, as well. Poe is well known not only for end rhyme, but also internal rhyme. An example of this would be: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary," with the words "dreary" and "weary" rhyming.

End rhyme is also used:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore--
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--
Only this and nothing more."

Words that show end rhyme from this stanza are: lore, door and more.

Onomatopoeia is easy to hear with words such as "rapping" and "tapping."

The rhythm, as well as the elements listed above, gives the poem a melodic and musical sense of swaying back and forth, and the verse appeals strongly to the ear.

Poe uses literary elements quite effectively to develop the mood of this poem. Poe is often credited with being one of the fathers of mystery and of Gothic literature. This particular poem creates a hysteria and maddening mood that makes us feel that the speaker is going crazy.

So, what are some of the elements he uses to create this impact of crazed mystery and hysteria?

The repetition, rhyme, meter, and rhythm of each stanza feels so patterned that it draws the reader in. When authors go to the trouble to plan out meter and rhyme, it impresses the reading audience and we often wonder what is next or how the author is going to wrap up a topic or stay on topic while employing all of those devices at once.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door— “'Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing more.”

Looking at the text of this first stanza, the internal rhyme of the first line and the napping, rapping, and tapping impress us. This also follows a story form or plot. We can tell he was feeling a little creeped out, he was beginning to fall asleep reading a book, and this all of the sudden, someone knocked on the door. This image of someone in between sleep and wakefulness also contributes to the mood because we can all relate to that time, it is like being awake during a dream. Since we relate, the impact on us is strong. Sometimes our minds play tricks on us during that time. Finally, Poe uses simile, metaphor and allusion throughout the rest of the poem to again help us relate to the feelings he is trying to describe. Because these are comparisons, we can relate. By the end of the poem, we can tell he's been freaked out by this Raven that must represent something from his past which haunts him. We all have similar moments of pain in our own pasts that help us relate. It may not be the loss of a loved one, but we all know pain and can feel his because of these uses of literary elements.