„The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is a narrative poem published in January 1845.

Due to its
unforgettable rhythm, ghostly atmosphere, pleasant musicality and stylised language „The Raven”
became an instant sensation. Is one of the best-known and most popular poems in the English language,
and its title became a nickname for the author.

„The Raven” is the story of man who’ve lost his love and tries to forget her, to find relief, but all
seems to be hopeless. Even one of themes in the poem is hopelessness and the prophet of this
sentiment is The Raven, a mysterious bird that knocked at the door of our speaker, then at the window
and entered in the chamber, sat on the bust of Pallas and cried one single word: Nevermore. For the
beginning it seems that Raven’s name is Nevermore, but going further it becomes the answer for all
questions that our speaker puts in the hope of overcoming his grief. The Raven just emphasizes the pain
of the troubled man.

Due to speaker’s attitude the Raven goes through a metamorphosis. In the beginning when it just
enters in the room and presents itself, the speaker sees him as a simple dark bird. Then, when Raven
gives an answer to one of his thoughts (the speaker does not ask bird, he just circles in mind the idea
That the Raven will leave him soon, and the bird, like it heard or read the thoughts of our men cries
‘Nevermore’). At this stage when the dialogue with the man starts, The Raven is in the role of a demon,
a bird of evil, the aspect of devil, because it seems to have knowledge about the afterlife. In the end our
mystical bird with the condition that remains on the bust of Pallas shading the soul of our speaker, it
converts into a feeling, the motif of continuous man’s grief. (a bird- a demon- a feeling).

According to this evolution of the Raven we can guess the sentimental situation of the man. Firstly,
he sees the reality, he can reach it, while the raven is a simple bird. Than our speaker has a kind of panic
attack an impulse of depression where everything is exaggerated in a negative way, as a bird can be
shown as a beast. In the third stage the man accepts the inability of forgetting his love and transform
the demon of bird in a sharp beak of his heart that will continuously remain there feeding his grief.
According to this idea the presence of the raven can be debated. Maybe it was just an illusion of the
speaker in the road of accepting his madness that triumphs over his sanity. It is not a happy end,
according to my thoughts, because the speaker will be always unhappy, his grief will never fade, but
accepting it, accepting that madness will usually accompany him, the danger of a psychological terror
decreases a bit, and the time obtains the possibility of trying to heal the soul.

Sometimes I throw a coin when I want to make a choice. But occasionally I throw the same coin to
get an answer from galaxy or God, I’m not totally sure. In my game always heads means ‘Yes’ and tails is
‘No’. Reading ‘The Raven’ I remembered one day, when I made a mistake and I tried to justify my action
by getting a positive answer from my game of throwing the coin. I ‘asked’ I think more than six or seven
times if what I’ve done is well in a way, in an unknown way for me, every time paraphrasing the
question and every time catching the same face of the coin with tails. I found no justifications like the
man from ‘The Raven’ found no signs of happiness in the words of his prophet with black feathers. But
the key is hidden under resignation. It is painful, but sometimes we have to take the risk of a direct
distinguishable pain then to be patient until the pain appears out of the blue. You can be just
unprepared to endure it.

Sad poetry is beautiful poetry!