There are many references to death throughout "The Raven," creating a somber and mysterious atmosphere and reinforcing how distraught the speaker is about the death of his lover, Lenore. It is as though everything he sees or considers is linked to death because her death is occupying his thoughts almost exclusively. In the first stanza, the speaker refers to the time of day, "midnight," which is notable because this time signals the "death" of the day.

In the second stanza, the speaker describes the time of year as "bleak December," which is the month that would figuratively mark the death of the year which has just finished. December is not only the last month of the calendar year, but it is also the month in which winter begins and all of nature seems to die with the coming of the cold and the snow, rendering the environment "bleak."

In this same stanza, the speaker also describes the "dying" embers of the fire. This is a common enough expression, but here it is another indicator of the speaker's morbid thoughts. Even the raven itself is a symbol of death, given its inky, forbidding appearance. Indeed, by the poem's end, the speaker says that the raven's shadow will be cast over him forever, representing death's constant presence in his thoughts henceforth.