What is the onomatopoeia in "The Raven"?
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 world they are reading about. It can also add excitement and action into the piece. Edgar Allen Poe uses onomatopoeia throughout his poem “The Raven .” The onomatopoeia starts in the first stanza, when Poe writes that “suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.” The word tapping and rapping are examples of onomatopoeia, since you can hear the action within the words themselves. These words repeat throughout the poem, but other examples of onomatopoeia can also be found. Words like flutter, croaking, tinkled, and shrieked are also examples. By reading the poem carefully, you should be able to find more words that sound like their...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
meaning, which will give you additional examples of onomatopoeia.
What are some examples of consonance in Poe's "The Raven"?
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 instance, the third stanza:
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
“’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—
This it is and nothing more.”
You asked more than one question in your original question which is against enotes regulations, so I have edited it down to focus on your main question alone. Please remember to ask only one question at a time, and don't feel tempted to slip in multiple questions!
Consonance is defined as the repetition of the same or similar final consonant sounds on accented syllables or in important words. Thus "ticktock" for example is an example because of the repeated "ck" sound. Do not confuse consonance with alliterations, which is the repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together. Poe uses both of these literary techniques extensively in his work.
Consider the following example of consonance from the poem:
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eager I wished the morrow;--vainly I had sought to borrow...
Note the consonance in the repetition of the "t" sound in "wrought," "ghost" and "wished." Remember, consonance is about the sound, not the actual letter, so the fact that "wished" ends in a "t" sound and not a "d" sound means that we can classify it as consonance.
Hopefully this will help you identify other examples of consonance in this great poem. Good luck!
Discuss the alliteration in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven".
The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, is Poe's most popular poem and the one he, personally, was most pleased with. It has a constant rhythm and many examples of alliteration, giving it a musical quality, and tells the sad story of Lenore, "the rare and radiant maiden," (rare and radiant are examples of alliteration), lost forever to the most despondent narrator. The narrator is determined to torment himself as he dwells on his "sorrow for the lost Lenore." (Lost and Lenore are examples of alliteration.)
Alliteration is a literary, sound device, using repeated sounds at the beginning of words, that allows the poet to emphasize particular words or phrases throughout the poem to ensure that the reader understands the message. In The Raven, the reader is almost hypnotized by the ongoing alliteration because the rhythm that it creates, and which is intensified by the rhyme and the word and phrase repetition, engrosses the reader in the poem and the narrator's misfortune as he hears the knocking: "Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before." The repeated d-sound creates the alliteration and the effect. As the reader is gripped by the narrator's misfortune and excited by the apparent "visitor entreating entrance," (the repeated e-sound creates the alliteration) which has "filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before," the reader is anxious to continue and establish the source of the "tapping, tapping." The alliteration continues in the repeated f-sound (filled..., fantastic..., felt...) and the "t" from tapping.
In this poem, the alliteration also helps to place the reader within the narrator's environment. The reader can relate to the narrator's concerns as he becomes more incensed with the raven "Perched upon a bust of Pallas." As the momentum builds and the rhyme intensifies, the alliteration as, "Much I marvelled," reveals the conflict that the narrator now feels as he is both annoyed and fascinated by this bird and is "Startled at the stillness broken."
The narrator is searching desperately for the meaning of the raven's entrance and is tormented: "On this home by horror haunted—tell me truly.." He cannot rest although he wants closure but resigns himself to eternal anguish: "my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor."
There are many examples of alliteration thoughout "The Raven." Below are a few selections.
Stanza 1:
weak and weary
nodded, nearly napping
Stanza 2:
surcease of sorror
lost Lenore
rare and radiant
Stanza 3:
silken sad uncertain
Stanza 5:
doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before
The most brilliant use of alliterations occurs in Stanza 14, where the "s" sound is repeated in "denser," "unseen," "censer," "Swung," and "Seraphim," and then the "f" sound is repeated in "foot-falls" and the "t" sound in "tinkled" and "tufted"--all in just two lines.
Stanza 14:
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
The whole poem depends on alliterations as well as rhyme to move it along and to make it seem like a lyrical dirge. There is hardly a stanza that does not contain some use of alliteration as well as internal rhymes such as in:
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
Where does alliteration create onomatopoeia in lines 13-18 of "The Raven"?
Alliteration refers exclusively to the repetition of the initial consonant sound of words. The initial lines of this stanza read, "And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain / Thrilled me [...]" (lines 13-14). The "s" sound at the beginning of "silken" and "sad" is alliterative and it describes the sound made, perhaps, by a silken curtain rustling in a light wind. However, "silken sad uncertain rustling" contains four instances of the "s" sound: at the beginnings of "silken" and "sad," then in the middles of "uncertain" (the soft "c") and "rustling." Because not all of these "s" sounds are at the beginnings of words, we wouldn't refer to the entire phrase as an example of alliteration, but it does seem appropriate to consider all four repetitions of the sound, though, since they are so close to one another and are much more striking than just considering two repetitions.
As for examples of onomatopoeia in the first twenty four lines, "rapping" and "tapping" would both qualify, as would "muttered" and "rustling." All of these words sound like the sounds they describe.