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Jovana Zorić
Professor Aleksandra Izgarjan
XIX Century American Literature
16 May 2011

The Raven: Themes

The Raven is a narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe and it was first published in 1845.
Eventually, it became Poe’s most popular poem, and one of the most famous poems ever written.
In 1846, in his follow-up essay The Philosophy of Composition, Poe explains the process of
writing the poem; he gives the account of his poetic theory and analyses the poem. The purpose
of this paper will be to explore and explain the themes of the poem. Therefore, it is useful to
begin by summarising the poem. It is a sad story about a young scholar who is trying to supress
his sorrow over his lost love when he is visited by a raven which comes as a prophet answering
with single word – “Nevermore“ to each of his questions. The definiteness of bird’s answers
makes young man realise that he will never reunite with his deceased lover but also that all his
efforts to forget her are futile. The raven, thus, evokes his biggest fears and leaves him in utter
despair in his descent into madness (Pacić, 76).
In order to understand Poe’s works we need to look deeper into his biography. It is
known that his childhood and youth have had a profound impact on the formation of his
personality and, of course, on the nature of his art (Pacić, 63).
“When Allan was two years old his father disappeared, leaving
Poe’s mother poverty stricken, taking care of her two small
children, pregnant again, dying of tuberculosis. She died at the age
of twenty-four bequeathing to the three year old Poe a miniature
portrait of herself. The effect of his mother’s early death became
the first of those young languishing, dying women in his life that
gave him a fearful sense of the nearness and inevitability of death
and that was later transformed into fictional figures as Morella,
Ligeia, Madeline.” (Pacić, 63)
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As we can conclude from this excerpt, the death of his mother would only be the beginning of
young Poe’s painful losses, which would later prove to be a source of great inspiration in his
fruitful career. In 1936 he married his thirteen-year old cousin Virginia Clemm in whose house
he was living at the time. However, the happiness did not last long. Virginia died in 1847,
leaving Poe grieving once again over the loss of a beautiful woman, so it is no wonder that every
time in his works, the unearthly, idyllic love is mercilessly interrupted by sudden death, since
death, first of his mother, than his foster mother Mrs. Allan, and finally Virginia, was “one of the
most constant facts of his life” (Pacić, 65). Therefore, he was in a constatnt search for a surrogate
mother and a lover through his works and this would become his commonest theme. Having this
in mind, it is much easier for us to interpret Poe’s works and cast some light on his most
interesting poem The Raven.
Another source for better understanding of Poe’s works are his essays. One of the most
important ones is The Philosophy of Composition. Poe first decided upon the length of the poem
and then he proceeded to determine the effect, which is closely connected to the themes. As Poe
himself states in his critical essay The Poetic Principle, poetry is defined as “the rhythmical
creation of beauty” (Poe), and its meaning is the search for ideal beauty. The aim of poetry,
according to that, would be to satisfy man’s “immortal instinct” (Pacić, 73), which is the sense of
the beautiful. He explains that this kind of unearthly beauty is not connected to the truth or moral
sense; it is not a combination of qualities, but something surreal and unattainable, thus being
everlastingly fascinating to humans. In his essay The Philosophy of Composition, Poe explains
his vision of beauty:
“That pleasure which is at once the most intense, the most
elevating, and the most pure, is, I believe, found in the
contemplation of the beautiful. When, indeed, men speak of
Beauty, they mean, precisely, not a quality, as is supposed, but an
effect — they refer, in short, just to that intense and pure elevation
of soul – not of intellect, or of heart — upon which I have
commented, and which is experienced in consequence of
contemplating "the beautiful." Now I designate Beauty as the
province of the poem, merely because it is an obvious rule of Art
that effects should be made to spring from direct causes — that
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objects should be attained through means best adapted for their

attainment — no one as yet having been weak enough to deny that
the peculiar elevation alluded to, is most readily attained in the
poem.” (Poe: The Philosophy of Composition)
Then he proceeded to decide upon the refrain and chose the word “Nevermore” for its sonority
and prolonged emphasis. As for the bird, Poe wanted it to be symbolic, to embody the
melancholy that he wanted to present. Therefore, he chose the raven as the most suitable and
appropriate to the tone. Next thing for the poet was to select the topic of the poem. Since he
considered melancholy to be the most suitable feeling for poetry, death was the next logical
choice, thus, we got the most prevalent theme in the poem – death of a beautiful woman, this
being the only topic which connects death and beauty, and one of the commonest topics in Poe’s
works in general.
“I asked myself – ‘Of all melancholy topics, what, according to
the universal understanding of mankind, is the most melancholy?’
Death – was the obvious reply. ‘And when’, I said, ‘is this most
melancholy of topics most poetical?’ From what I have already
explained at some length, the answer, here also, is obvious –
‘When it most closely allies itself to Beauty: the death, then, of a
beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the
world – and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for
such topic are those of a bereaved lover.’” (Poe: The Philosophy of
Composition)
Basically, we have a young lover lamenting the death of his beloved Lenore, a woman of
exceptional beauty, and this theme is the basis for all the other themes in the poem as will be
demonstrated throughout this paper.
Love is a complementary theme to the previous one. After all, we see the student
suffering over the loss of his beloved Lenore. Interestingly, not once does Poe mention the word
“love” directly. Even so, love is one of the most significant themes in the poem. The love in the
poem is providing a sort of a balance between the light and the darkness of human life. It is the
most exalted and powerful feeling, but where love ends, pain and suffering begin. And this is
what is depicted in The Raven, the dark side of love, loss, and longing for one thing that is
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impossible to attain – getting one’s loved one back. But if we look deeper into the poem, we will
notice that there is not a place where love is described in isolation; without mentioning grief as
well. This is where the credibility of this theme starts being doubted. We do not know anything
about Lenore, we only get to see her through her lover’s eyes and we get the impression that self-
pity is more important to the narrator than love. It was not unusual for Poe to depict a woman in
this way in his works. It is known that women in his works are not three-dimensional characters
but only blank slates for expressing the emotions of their lovers. However, the themes of death
and love are inseparable in this poem and could not exist one without the other (Shmoop.com).
Another theme that should be discussed is the supernatural. It is quite obvious that one of
poet’s intentions was to evoke the feeling of horror and gloom in the reader. Even the language
and tone used are chosen really carefully in order to produce a certain effect on the reader. Poe
managed to create an extremely rhythmical piece of art; a poem with so powerful a sound that it
almost seems hypnotic. While reading it out loud we will notice how the poem begins slowly and
quietly and then it becomes louder and more intense (Price, Shmoop.com). The next element is
the setting. It is a cold, dark, December night; the student is completely detached from the real
world, sitting in the silence of his room, trying to bury the grief in his studies. He is floating in a
dreamy state, between sleep and reality, between life and death. Therefore, the theme of death-
in-life or life-in-death is also present and can be considered separately (Pacić, 76).
Probably the most noticeable element is the bird itself. The very idea of a bird flying into
a room and uttering words (one word in this case) irresistibly drives us to the supernatural and
even makes this poem gothic (Enotes.com). An irritating raven on the bust of Pallas is shoving
this painful word of wisdom into his, already bleeding, soul, when all he wants to see is his
beloved Lenore. But instead, he is confronted with the cruel reality in that single word
“Nevermore”. The student even accuses the raven of being evil, a prophet or a devil: “’Prophet!’
said I, ‘thing of evil! Prophet still, if bird or devil!’” (Poe, 85) And all this because he doesn’t
want to accept the inevitable truth – his lover is gone and will never come back. But, however
strange a talking bird may seem, maybe it can all be logically explained. The word it constantly
repeats could simply be a product of something it has learned from its master as the student
himself mentions in the poem:
“’Doubtless,’ said I, ‘what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
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Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore:
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of Never–nevermore.’” (Poe, 62-66)
However, he is only trying to console himself that what he is hearing is not true, and is refusing
to believe in the prophetic word. Another thing that should also be included in the supernatural is
the religion and all the elements in the poem connected with it (Izgarjan). The main question the
poet imposes here is concerned with the existence of life after death. “The climax of the poem
comes when to the lover’s question whether he will meet his beloved in future life at least the
raven gives the same answer and thus becomes a demon that casts a shadow over the student’s
entire life. Having denied personal immortality, the raven leaves the student in utter despair”
(Pacić, 76). Lenore is presented as an angelic creature, pure and perfect, but when he demands to
know whether she is in heaven, he gets the same defeating answer – “Nevermore”. The poet
makes a contrast by mentioning angels and then comparing the bird with a demon. He is almost
angry at the angels he sees, which makes him implore to get an answer to his question. As
expected, he gets the same answer which makes him even angrier and he wants the raven to
leave.
“’Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!’ I shrieked, upstarting:
‘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 thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!’
Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.’” (Poe, 97-102)
Again, we see the way he is deceiving himself, convincing himself that every answer was a lie.
We notice that the student mentions the name of God a couple of times when addressing the bird,
but it seems as though he were ingratiating himself with it in order to get a different answer.
However, everything is fruitless as he gets disappointed once again. Other religious elements are:
the bust of Pallas, who is a goddess of wisdom, thus the raven standing on it should represent a
source of wisdom or truth; the Plutonian shore, which is a symbol for the underworld and thus a
clear association for death; balm in Gilead, which stands for a Biblical place and here it
represents a possible cure for student’s aching heart (Associatedcontent.com, Izgarjan).
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It was previously said that the theme of death-in-life (or life-in-death) would be explained
separately for its importance surpasses the general meaning of the supernatural.
“Themes of death-in-life, especially being buried alive or returning
like a vampire from the grave, appear in many of his works,
including The Premature Burial, Ligeia, The Cask of Amontillado
and The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe's twilight realm between
life and death and his gaudy, Gothic settings are not merely
decorative. They reflect the overcivilised yet deathly interior of his
characters disturbed psyches. They are symbolic expressions of the
unconscious, and thus are central to his art.” (Usinfo.com)
Similarly, in The Raven we have the narrator who is stuck between life and death, leading this
feigned life, buried in his books while constantly thinking about his dead lover. He is obsessed
with death and desperately wants to bring his lost Lenore back. Since that is impossible, he turns
to the other option – dying and meeting her in heaven. This is where the raven comes, and gives
him the final blow by denying him this possibility too with only one word “Nevermore”. So,
basically, the raven represents the link between life and death and, as such, has a unique ability
to “predict” the things he is asked about. Moreover, the raven could even be seen as a messenger
from the underworld, the evidence for this being “Plutonian shore” mentioned in the poem,
which has already been explained as a symbol of the underworld. There are also other symbols
which prove the presence of this theme, such as December, which represents the end of a year
and the beginning of a new one; or midnight, which is a point where one day ends and another
one begins. Also, the student is “nearly napping” (Poe, 3), which means that he is in the state
between sleep and reality. “Dying ember[s]” (Poe, 8) are showing their shadows which look like
ghosts which could be interpreted as beings existing between life and death. All this indicates
that the tormented student is half-dead after his loved one has died. He is incapable of living
without her and has become like a ghost, buried in the peace of his room, unable to face the
reality (Associatedcontent.com). The problem intensifies when he is confronted with death in the
form of a raven which confirms the definiteness of Lenore’s death but also becomes a reminder
of his own mortality (Pacić, 68).
Alienation or loneliness could be considered as another theme. Poe was actually suffering
from loneliness and depression so he transmitted them into his works (Easylit.com). In The
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Raven, we have a war between student’s inner world and reality which is trying to break into the
silence of his room and his mind and violate his precious loneliness.
“His typical story is an allegory of a dream experience. It occurs
within the closed world of the narrator’s troubled mind and
embodies the efforts of the hero’s soul, compromised to the
diseased earth, the logical way of thinking and the emerging
passions to recover the lost unity. The characters are not distinct
personalities but faculties of the poet’s divided nature.” (Pacić, 68)
The cruel reality is not something that the scholar can endure, so he must “retreat from the
temporal, physical reality, from the ordinary world, into the world of imagination, into the world
of dreams” (Pacić, 67). However he cannot hide forever. The arrogant bird does not have respect
for his sorrow and breaks his peace inconsiderately. There happens the main conflict in the poem
– the conflict between man and nature, or imagination and reality. Soon enough, it becomes
evident how unbearable the reality is to the student. He is struggling to retain his peace, but it is
impossible as he starts losing his mind over the bird’s answer which destroys him completely.
“Enclosed in the world of their illusions, in the world that is purely
subjective and has nothing to do with the reality of the external
world, Poe’s protagonists are bound to encounter a dissolution of
the mind and a complete disintegration of the self. The blankness
and absoluteness, white or black, good or evil, is bound to dim
man’s vision, flood his spirit and bring self-destruction.” (Pacić,
78)
The very idea of a talking bird does not seem very likely, which raises another question
and that is the question of madness (Shmoop.com). This theme can, thus, be fully understood
through student’s relationship with the raven and the transformation of this relationship
throughout the poem. At first the student is thrilled to see the imposing bird on his window, and
he is curious to know more about it. He uses the words such as: “stately raven” (Poe, 38), “grave
and stern decorum” (Poe, 44), “lordly name” (Poe, 47) when addressing the bird, but as it
continues disappointing him with its answer, his mood starts changing. He begins convincing
himself that what the bird is saying is a mere repetition of what it had heard from its master but it
is pretty clear that he does this only to calm himself down, so that his curiosity in the 12 th stanza
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almost seems fake. The proof for this would be the language he uses when talking about the bird,
which is quite different than that mentioned before: “What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt,
and ominous bird of yore/ Meant in croaking ‘Nevermore’” (Poe, 71-72). The gradation of the
questions which will follow shows us that the student is descending into insanity. He desperately
wants to forget Lenore, but at the same time, he continues asking these questions even though it
is obvious what answer will ensue. By the end of the poem, we see him in a state of
psychological breakdown as he starts yelling and calling the raven a devil and a demon. But if
we forget all this and observe the poem from another perspective (from the perspective that birds
simply do not speak), we can say that the student has been insane all along! In that case, the bird
does not exist; it is only a product of his imagination or the dark side of his tortured psyche. He
has known the answer to all of his questions all along, but has been trying to suppress it in his
mind because it is too painful (Shmoop.com). Thus, the raven is the symbol of that knowledge
which now comes to the surface and discomposes the student completely. The poem is then
regarded as “a set of stages in the process of self-knowledge and symbolic destruction of the
mind by the impact of reality upon it” (qtd. in Pacić, 76). And according to Pacić, “In the process
of this destruction the protagonist of the poem moves from the real world of time and space to
the chaotic world of his morbid fantasies” (76).
A theme closely related to madness is self-torture because it can also be viewed through
the relationship between the student and the raven. Poe usually based his works on guilt (among
other things), but guilt meaning perverseness, which is the desire for self-destruction. Poe
himself states in The Philosophy of Composition: “The student . . . is impelled . . . by the human
thirst for self-torture” (Poe). Although he quickly realizes what the response would be, he keeps
asking the questions hoping for the positive answer. Still, the answer does not change which only
increases young student’s grief. But, as was said in the previous paragraph, the bird is within him
not outside of him and thus the torture which it brings has already existed but with the raven it
comes above the surface. So we can say that the dialogue between the student and the bird is “a
dialogue of two voices or sides of the youthful protagonist who asks those . . . questions and
receives only his own interpretative answers in the bird’s one word reply” (Davidson, 88).
However, the “stock and store” (Poe, 62) answer that bird has to offer would not be so horrifying
if the questions were not formulated in a way which causes the response to fit perfectly every
time. Almost like the student wanted to get “Nevermore” as an answer in order to prolong his
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suffering, which illustrates his masochism. “The question had to be of such nature that the bird’s
answer ‘Nevermore’ should involve ‘the utmost conceivable amount of sorrow and despair’”
(Pacić, 75). It is not the raven who destroys him; it is he who pushes himself over the edge with
his overwhelming compulsion to interrogate the bird. “The lover-narrator enacts ‘that species of
despair which delights in self-torture’. He asks the bird questions that will bring him the luxury
of sorrow, through the anticipated answer ‘Nevermore’” (Elliott, 272).
Having stated and elaborated on the themes of The Raven, we can conclude that precisely
this abundance of them may have contributed to the immense popularity of the poem. From the
universal ones like love and death, to those characteristic for Poe such as alienation or self-
torture, they are all combined masterfully into one prefect whole. And even though the opinions
on this poem are different, no one has stayed indifferent towards it and it has become a cultural
phenomenon. Some even consider it the best poem ever written. One thing is for certain – a
poem like The Raven shall be written “Nevermore” (Price).
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