was, nor is it particularly relevant for the poem. In stanza five, spooked by the sound of the raven outside, he opens his door and whispers the name “Lenore,” as if perhaps her ghost was making an anticipated visit. Nothing is there, of course, but the narrator’s inconsolable grief is established.

First the narrator asks (asserts, really) that the raven is a kind of drug (“nepenthe,” a kind of potion in classical literature used to treat sorrow) sent to make him forget Lenore. Of course, the raven answers, “Nevermore,” meaning he will always remember her (lines 81-84).

Second, the narrator asks “is there balm in Gilead?” (line 89—a reference to Jeremiah 8:22). In other words, he asks, is there no medicine that will cure my sorrow? The raven’s answer confirms the narrator’s belief that he will mourn Lenore forever.

Finally, the narrator asks “Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, / It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore” (lines 93-94)—meaning, perhaps, they will meet again in heaven (“Aidenn” is an alternate for Eden, or a heavenly paradise). Again, the raven replies, “nevermore.”

In each case, the narrator is hoping that that the bird’s answer will provide him some measure of comfort in his grief. He believes the bird is a kind of supernatural messenger. The poem doesn’t exactly provide any evidence that this might really be the case, however. The answer the bird gives only serves to confirm the depths of the narrator’s sorrow.

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 from the Bible, but it now signifies some kind of universal cure.  Thus, the speaker seems to be hoping that there is a cure, some cure, for his sorrow and pain.  

Next, the speaker asks if he will ever be reunited with Lenore, perhaps in death.  He says,

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore . . .

Aidenn is another word for Eden, or Paradise.  Thus the speaker seems to ask if he will be able to join Lenore, his dead lover, after he has died and they are both gone to heaven.  He, again, hopes that the bird can offer some kind of comfort to him since the prospect of never seeing Lenore again seems to be most troubling to him.  Of course, the bird offers no comfort.  In fact, since the bird will offer no comfort, the narrator orders him to leave, saying,

"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! . . .
Leave my loneliness unbroken! — quit the bust about my door!"

Now, the speaker just wants the bird to leave, but it, of course, will not.  The narrator feels as though his soul will never leave the shadow the bird casts on the floor.  In other words, he will always be aware of his own mortality and the futility of his hopes of a reunion with Lenore.

On the fast track to madness due to the loss of his lover Lenore, the speaker in Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" would like nothing more than for the raven to give him good news about her return. When he asks the bird if he and Lenore will be reunited in Heaven, it accordingly responds "Nevermore!" Unhappy at the response, the reader demands that the raven leave him alone and get back to the "Plutonian shore" (return to the Devil). However, the bird refuses to leave, again remarking "Nevermore!" and continues "still sitting" on its perch on the bust of Pallas above the chamber door.

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 token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
     Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!
Take they beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"

The narrator seems to believe, at this point, that the bird is some kind of freakish messenger from the land of death, an interpretation supported by his assertion that the raven has come from the "Night's Plutonian shore": Night is often associated with death, and Pluto is the Roman God of the underworld.

Moreover, the raven is black, a color often associated with death. The narrator wishes to be left alone, but the continued presence of the raven—its apparent refusal to quit his presence—adds to its symbolism. The raven has told the narrator that there is no hope of a cure for his pain from losing Lenore; the raven has also told the narrator that there will be no reunion for the lovers after death "in the distant Aidenn." Aidenn is another name for Paradise (similar to Eden).

Now, all that remains for the narrator is the continued hopelessness of mortality—both Lenore's and his own—and the pain that it causes. He hopes that the raven would go, and leave him in relative peace, but, in the end, he says, "my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor / Shall be lifted—nevermore!"  

The narrator asks several things of the raven through the course of the poem. Most of the questions are implied, but they are still there.

When the narrator first hears the "tapping at my chamber door," he ignores it. When it continues, he looks to see who is there. Finding no one, hope arises in his grief in spite of himself and he asks, "Lenore?"

Upon the entrance of the raven into the chamber, the narrator is surprised and somewhat amused by this strange creature. He attempts to learn more about his visitor by asking, "Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"

The most heartfelt question addressed to the raven is, "Is there balm in Gilead?" The narrator is asking if there is any healing available, any comfort for the broken heart afflicting him as a result of the death of his beloved Lenore.

Finally and desparately, the narrator pleads for some indication of the future whether there is any hope of reuniting with Lenore.

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

And the answer to that question, as to all the rest, is "Nevermore."

The speaker orders the raven to stop knocking at his chamber door.

The speaker is sitting up one night trying to study, depressed over a lost love.  Suddenly, there is a knocking at the door.  He does not know what it is at first.  Finally, a raven flies in and sits on a bust.  The speaker gets annoyed at the ravens continual tapping and yelling, “Nevermore!”

Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust
          above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy
          form from off my door!”
     Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

After entreating the raven to stop several times, he gets really frustrated.  He yells at the bird because it reminds him of his lost love, and his helplessness and depression. He can no more get the raven to stop knocking than he can forget about the love he lost.

"The Raven" is a poem about depression and grief.  Grief for lost loved ones does not stop at sadness.  It also involves anger and frustration.  The speaker of this poem clearly goes through the different stages as he attemtps to come to terms with what he has lost, and get on with his life.