Edgar Allan Poe:

*A writer who was making his living by the pen in the USA

*He met a series of attacks for being immoral, crazy, and depressive

*The poem is a lyrical narrative published in 1845

*First published in two newspapers at the same time

*Became the most popular poem of the US as well as the most famous of Poe’s work

*Its refrain is the reason behind its popularity

* the statue of “Pallas” stands for wisdom of the raven itself; the meaning it carries and the foretelling it conveys

- The title both, prepares us for what is coming (due to late appearance of the bird after line 38), and let us
keep him in focus, who is he, where he comes from, and what does he represent.
- The bird brought joy and smile to the poet after feeling little dizzy, sleepy, and depressed
- The bird’s answers, though meaningful, yet irrelevant to the questions the poet asked
- The bird replies with only “nevermore” to the poet’s side-talking to himself that the bird will leave tomorrow
- The same answer is given to the poet’s questioning the bird’s nature
- He thought the bird will leave as his wishes and hopes left him without getting accomplished, yet the bird
said “nevermore”

The replies are causing the poet’s suffering to be even more intense, and ends when this self-torture reaches its
utmost levels

Tone: melancholic, almost frantic and horrifying

Though it’s a bad omen, it’s given a weird interpretation and an unbelievable explanation of staying there,
repeating the very same word that the poet tries thru this explanation to deceive himself; it’s not of any relation
to my state od depression

“the bleak December” “deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing”

“each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor”

“darkness there and nothing more”

“prophet”

“ebony bird” “grave” “stern” “night’s plutonian shore” – hell of the Greeks (a hellish darkness)

“Devil”

1) Asking name – never more

2) Thinking it will leave – nevermore
3) Drink nepthen to forget Lenore – nevermore
4) Asking about nature – nevermore
5) Asking about Lenore – nevermore
6) Leave me – nevermore
7) Their souls’ shadows are on the floor

Themes of love (untold love), madness (talking to a bird), nature (waiting for elements of nature to enter),
supernatural (a bird talking)
Edgar Allan Poe is one of America’s most famous poets who didn’t live long a cause of his desperate life and the
deep sadness in which he lived. He is also a poet who was making his living with the pen. His poetry reflected his
very personal life full of misery that he was attacked a cause of his works that were received as depressive, crazy,
and immoral. Yet, his poem “The Raven” is widely considered the most famous of all American poetry. On its first
publishing, the poem was presented in two newspapers at the same time. It’s indeed Poe’s most famous poem. It’s a
lyrical narrative famous for its ‘refrain’; that one word repeated all through the poem “nevermore” that is a reply for
the entire questions posed by the poet to his “ebony” visitor.

1) Poe: living/attacks; crazy, immoral, depressive

2) Lyrical narrative/most famous/refrain

While on a “bleak December” night, Poe is narrating sitting in his chamber reading some “lore” trying to forget his
late beloved “Lenore”. While reading, he says, he heard a “tapping” at the door which had him in fear and
excitement. He reassured himself at the beginning that it’s just “some visitor” and he goes to open the door to find
nothing but gardens, storm, and his sound’s echo when uttered the word “Lenore”. He then gets back to his reading
to hear a louder tapping, but this time at his window. When he opens it, an “ebony raven” perches into his chamber
and places itself above the statue of Pallas right in front of the chamber’s door. The poet continues to say that the
bird, which brought him a smile and some happiness at the beginning, said nothing but “nevermore”. Whenever he
asks him a question, he receives the very same answer, “nevermore”. He asks the bird about its name, then he
thinks it will leave in the “morrow” as all his friends and his beloved, ye the bird says “nevermore”. He then asks it
about its nature, then, he invites it to drink some nepthen from which he drinks to forget his sorrows of losing
Lenore. The bird, again, utters “nevermore”. The poet, slightly afraid and irritated, starts thinking that this word is of
some relation with his state of depression, isolation, and misery. Yet, he tries again to reassure himself that the word
is just all what the bird knows. At last, the poet asks the bird will he see Lenore again, the bird answers “nevermore”,
then the poet, fully at agony and anger, orders the bird to leave. The raven’s shadow then overwhelms the poet’s
shadow on the floor of the room.

Perching into the room in this “bleak December” when “each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the
floor” is of a significance. The raven is known of its ill-omen nature. Its colour is ebony, and its crocking is hated and
noisy. Yet, the ebony bird of Poe is somehow different. It placed itself upon the statue of Pallas, the God of Wisdom
of the Greeks. The raven’s repeated answer which, according to Poe, is its “only stock and store” actually serves
while in deep relation with his state of isolation, stillness, and silence. Refusing to state its name, refers to Poe’s
name that is no more uttered after the death of his Lenore. When it asserted that it won’t leave by the “morrow” as
the poet muttered to himself, the bird is bringing to light its wisdom – why it chose the statue of Pallas –. Its stay
with him is the stay of all what the raven might recall; pessimism, depression, ebony, sadness, stillness, and of
course the “nevermore” of anything wished by the poet. It even stated clear that it’s not here for good, yet the poet,
clinging to the torn threads of hope, tries to twist facts and provide himself, by himself, with unbelievable
explanations that reflects his insanity. The bird may only be uttering this word as it might be its “only stock and
store”. The bird even pushed away the last hope of Lenore’s seeing. It even refused to drink from the “nepthen”.

Symbols of raven (madness, supernatural), death (Lenore), night (bleak December, dying ember), darkness

Themes of (madness, supernatural, nature, love)