Poems play a major role in society.

In many cases, they tend to address major issues and

matters. Whilst some come with hidden meanings, other poets directly address the issues without any
kind of possible symbolism or figuration. Among the major issues that pome tends to address include
love and loss. While poems that talk about love tend to be light and easy to read, those talking about
loss deal with controversial and heavy topics that at sometime can be scary to consider. Among such
poems is ‘The Raven’. First Published in January 1845, ‘The Raven’ is a poem by Allan Poem that talks
about a story of a scholar who lost a lover and like the case for most people, a long period of grief and
personal agony follows. In order to cope with with the feelings of loss, the poem details that the scholar
is forced to self-seclude and read old books that mainly focus on mystery. However, this did not go as
planned because as time moves, things to start getting intense. To be precise, first there is a knock at the
door and then on the window changes everything. First thinking it’s his later wife and then wind, shock
comes in when a crow lets itself in and the scholar starts to have a long conversation with it. Apparently,
the talking crow has only one answer ‘Nevermore’ to each and every question or statement made. As
the poem goes ahead, the persona becomes restless and if to hit back, the Raven does not calm down
this agitates the persona that he is clearly driven insane. Over time, the poem has gained do much
popularity due to its encapsulation of grief, despair and loss. Also, the poem has over time gained
notoriety for being scary and full of suspenseful events that leave readers on the edge. Analyzing the
poem, this paper posits that the chilling plot and setting as well as the themes of isolation due to grief,
presence of psychological terror and hopelessness make the poem to be creepy.

First forward, the plot point of the poem and the setting make the poem to be frightening for
the reader. In this, the poem begins with an unidentified speaker sitting in his place in the dead of the
night. He is reading old and esoteric books as a way to distract himself from the loss of his later wise,
Lenore. As he reads on, he nearly falls asleep but something strange happens; a knock is made at the
door. Looking at this setting, it is clear that it presents a rare kind of scariness. Precisely, it is not normal
for someone who has lost his or her wife to sit into the dead of the night reading old esoteric books.
Besides, the fact he hears a knock at the door when he is about to sleep shows that the events in the
poem were not normal and hence, the foundations of the poem being terrifying.

The plot point goes on to detail that the speaker reassures himself that this was definitely a
visitor. However, when he opens, he finds no one. Almost at the same time, another knock comes from
the window and this presents another dynamic of mystery. Assuming its wind, the speaker goes ahead
to open it and at this point, a raven hops in. At first, the speaker is seen to have a sigh of relief that he
goes ahead to jokingly ask for its name. To his surprise, the creature responds by saying, ‘Nevermore.’ In
all honesty, these subsequent events make things even scarier. For example, having a knock on the door
and the next on the window is a not a normal thing. Besides, having a raven that is able to speak brings
about another major kind of weirdness and mystery. Furthermore, having a raven, a traditionally dark-
themed bird come in the dead of the nigh arouses fear and hence, the depiction of bad luck.

The fact that the poem is scary is also given much boost when the speaker decides to carry on
with the conversation. First, he is unsure of the meaning of the raven’s cry. Curious, he whispers his
confusion and to his shock, the raven cries back ‘Nevermore.’ The speaker still tries to compose himself
and hence, he came with another theory that perhaps the bird obvious had an owner who might have
taught it to speak. After all, if ravens are well taught, they can be able to mimic human speech. Drawn
by surprise, the speaker starts to reflect on his late wife including the good time they had together and
how this was poised to change. For instance, he starts to imagine that she might never come back and
he will need to forget about her and move on. To many of his reflections, the bird still responds with the
word ‘Nevermore.’ Agitated with these replies, the speaker labels it evil and to feed his curiosity, he asks
it if he will ever find peace to which the bird repeat the same word. Clearly all these chains of events
bring about frightening fear to both the persona as well as the audience.

To underscore the notion that the poem is scary, an analysis of its themes clearly
cements the fact that the poem is not only scary, but also mysterious and sadness. One of the
major themes of the poem and one that that supports the reality of frights in the poem is the
isolating power of grief. Herein, the poem explores how grief can overcome someone and his or
her ability to live presently and engage society while at the same time creating chances of
frightening things to happen. For instance, throughout the poem, the speaker is depicted as not
being able to forget Lenore and this is seemingly overwhelming him to a point of madness and
open despair. Illustrating this, in the first stanza, the author says that he is ‘weak and weary’.
Apparently, when one gets to such a point in life where an open admission is made, it is obvious
that his or her thoughts are dark and one would quickly jump to anything that promises to offer
solace. For the author, reading old mystery books is the way but this does not offer any kind of
solace. However, this did not come to pass since a raven comes in and in more than one way,
the raven seems to only remind him of the dark place he is and how he was going to face this as
a harsh reality. In real life, grief and isolation are among the hardest things for one to deal
with. When a loved one passes one, people tend to be affected in unimaginable ways and
nothing can be scarier than having to deal with mysterious events including birds that talk. In
essence, the theme well cements the reality that the poem is scary.
Another key themes that show how scary the poem is the theme of psychological terror.
It is undisputable that ether one is haunted by demons or he or she is making up things, any
kind of supernatural things tend to remain out of order. In the poem, the speaker experiences
psychological terror instances and they all began when he states that he wanted to self-isolate
and read something distracting. When grieving, self-isolation is not good and it only shows a
deteriorating state of mind. Also, with the admission that he was reading in a “quaint and
curious volume” only depicts his dark state of mind. These only gets worse when the raven
comes in and starts saying the same name over and over again that the speaker is seemingly
thrown into a darker state of mind. For example, by calling it evil and somehow trying to reflect
over its, shows that hie mental health was only getting unstable with time showing how his mind
was terrorizing itself due to grief. Besides, the word ‘Nevermore’ only seems to mock the
speaker that no matter what happens, none of his wishful thinking was going materialize.
Overall, this theme also makes the poem be scarier since it showed the vulnerabilities the speaker
was having, his weak spots and what he deeply cared and how now everything was at risk.
The last theme from the poem that shows that it is scary is the theme of hopelessness. Right
from the beginning, the poet shows how hopeless the persona was. The poem clearly implies that the
speaker will never reunite with Lenore indicating that the persona was wasting too much time having
hope again. It is needless to mention that even the various instances of hope he finds, none really offers
a gray ray of home. For example, when he opens the door after the first knock, he calls Lenore hoping
maybe her ghost will appear. However, nothing appears and this shows that he had no hope for her
coming back. This is also the same thing when the raven answers ‘Nevermore’ to every wishful thinking
the speaker had and hence, showing that there was no much hope to cling on. In the contemporary
world, nothing scares people than a point where they have no hope because this tends to make people
mentally affected. Besides, it creates a major form of fright that the persona is seen to be
delusional.
In conclusion, Allan Poe’ ‘The Raven’ is a poem that explores the process of grieving and the
scary events that can happen when one does not handle loss well. The poem is about a man who has
just lost his wife. With sadness and grief, he decides that the best way to deal with lineless, he was going
to read old mystery books deep into the night. This plot point and setting sets the first stance of
scariness. To add to how scary things could get, the pome goes ahead to discuss major scaring themes.
For example, the poem talks about the theme of grief. In the contemporary world, grief is perhaps the
major entry point f being scared. Having to deal possibility of ghosts and leaning to live without the
loved one only tends to escalate this. Also, the poem introduces the psychological terror. Whether real
events or imagines, things like a knock on the door without anyone and then on the window can make
one be paranoid. Also, seeing a raven that is talking and constantly mocking a sad state of reality only
make the situation worse. Lastly, the theme of hopelessness makes it even scarier for the persona to
think in that, he might never have peace, never see the love of his life and never be able to make the
thoughts go away.