...Dear AJ, I am writing this letter of recommendation for the poem called “The Raven” by ‘Edgar Allen Poe.’ I will be recommending reading “The Raven” over watching the movie “Coraline.” “The Raven” is told by a man late at night in his dark spooky room all alone. There is suddenly a tapping sound at his door but he’s makes the decision to leave it he rethinks his life with his love, ‘Lenore.’ He starts to fear what is on the other side of his door so he takes the courageous act and opens the door. What does he see? He still hears tapping, and then he sees a Raven swoop in. The pure black raven watches over the narrator. The narrator asks the raven’s name. The raven answers “nevermore,” The poem then receives a twist where the bird answers the narrator every stanza “nevermore.” He then states “on the morrow he will leave," just as everyone else in his life did, again he receives the answer “nevermore.” That is the single word that the raven says to the narrator. The narrator starts asking questions about Lenore. He then asks if Lenore is in heaven. The raven says again “nevermore.” This makes the narrator very unhappy and angers him. He yells, "Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" The Raven stays still. Why? You can find out if you read the poem “The Raven” written by ‘Edgar Allen Poe.’ From “The Raven” you will learn an important lesson. That is that you will never lose people who you love whether they are dead or alive. The narrator does not understand the Raven’s...
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...There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There once was a mocking bird There...
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...“The Raven” takes place in the evening of a bleak December night as the narrator sits, trying to forget and cope with the loss of his love, Lenore. While on the verge of sleep, “suddenly there came a tapping, / As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.” He questions who or what could possibly be at his door at midnight, and so he goes to the window to try to fix the situation. A raven swoops in at the window, and the presence of this bird results in a smile from the narrator, “this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling.” This smile is something unknown to him due to the daily torment that his soul experiences of longing to be united with Lenore, a torment so excruciating that he may have considered attempting suicide over it. The most apparent symbol in the poem is this mysterious raven with whom the narrator converses and of whom he asks multiple questions. However, the only answer it can mutter, to his dismay, is “nevermore.” Poe wants the reader to question why the creature happens to be a raven, and more importantly why it only repeats that one phrase. The dark raven can be seen as the embodiment of evil, furthermore symbolizing death. Thus, death becomes a constant, mournful memory and overbearing intruder in the narrator’s life. This raven causes the man to dive into a deeper despair, losing all sense of belief in perpetual happiness and the afterlife. Despite the raven’s declarations, verifying the fact that it is not the bearer of good news, the...
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... Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” uses a dismal tone to compliment the story’s melancholic theme. In the poem, the narrator mourns the death of his wife, Lenore, which eventually leads to his demise. Moreover, as the narrator enters the beginning stages of the dying process, swinging in and out of reality, he explains the dreadful experience. To enhance this story even further Edgar made strategic use of the following figurative languages: symbolism, repetition, and rhythms. When the narrator began to drift in and out of reality, the first stage of death, he describes the noises of something knocking on his chamber door, and anxiously he asked who it was but received no answer. “ Tis some visitor; tapping at my chamber door- only this and nothing more.” The sounds of apparently something knocking at his door symbolized the angel of death coming to retrieve his soul. However, to further increase the use of symbolism, Edgar applies a visual aid and so introduces the raven, which is often used as a symbol of death. “Open I flung the shutters, when, with many a flirt a flutter, In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.” As the raven sat in the chamber above the door, the narrator asked for its name. However, the answer the bird gave was “Nevermore.” The raven continued to reply “ Nevermore” and so makes this an example of the figurative language, repetition. “Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian Shore!” Quoth the raven “ Nevermore...
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...Ashley Davis Mrs. Gunulfsen October 30, 2015 “The Raven” is the poem I have chosen for my analysis that was constructed by Edgar Alllen Poe.It includes several stanzas of despair and depression, symbolized by the bird it was named for. It was first published in 1845 and was noted for its “supernatural atmosphere”. He writes of a talking bird, the black as ink raven, that pays a visit to a student mourning the loss of his lover, Lenore. As it sits on a bust above the student’s chamber door, the raven seems to interrogate the lover with its constant repeating of the word “Nevermore”. Edgar said that he wrote the poem with mostly logical and methodical intent in order to construct a story that would appeal to both critics and the public, as he stated in his 1846 essay “The Philosophy of Composition” that speaks of his illustration of the raven. The raven itself was the main symbol of the entire poem and was partially inspired by the talking raven in Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens. Though the poem’s publication made Mr. Poe very popular throughout his life, it did not bring in much money. Soon thereafter, it was recreated and illustrated as well as parodied by several other people. Regardless of the critical opinion being selected as the poem’s literary status, it still remains one of the most, if not the most, famous poem written by anyone. "The Raven" describes the unnamed student on a sad and lonely night in December as he reads “forgotten lore” to forget the loss of his...
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...Prophecy of the Raven Thump, thump, thump, thump Hearts beat to the tremble of a lost mind To foster the waves of phantom fullness O’ what a lie, caught up in the madness Of a long lost chaos, a liberty oh so far From what we once called the inner home of freedom I start to watch the raven so eerily sitting on the tree, out of real curiosity Of the dark prophecy He proclaims so clearly, quote of His darkness “Ye shall fall, ye shall bow, ye shall hear the three night owls” The owls He speaks of are a fright to me, as I see so clearly now what He Has seen all along, we are in the dark and are trapped in an eternal pillory pending our heed Fear, anguish, the agony of uncertainty Hail! Hail the raven for His prophetic warning! As we are a lost people, searching in the dark for the light of peace One who went dim many a score ago One which is buried under the withheld mercy from our higher power Mercy of which He knows of, but not of Mercy of which He sees, but to He is blind Mercy of which He holds, but cannot pour out on this land For we are in an abyss the raven warned of, we fell in and bowed To a power below the world, and to it, we vowed “To ye, we surrender, one and us all, to no higher power can we still call, For ye is the author, of our saving grace, we betray thy prophet, we bring ending of days” The darkness heard, and for days we sat in a dark winter Screaming for our salvation to the deity we once thought was high Yet He trembles upon hearing this As He fears our...
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...In “The Raven”, by Edgar Allen Poe, the interaction between the raven and the bust of Pallas, the Greek goddess of wisdom, substantiates the idea that grief can overshadow wisdom. The narrator is engrossed in a “volume of forgotten lore”, which he is reading to forget and bury deep the memories of his departed love, Lenore, when he hears a knock that seems to be coming from his chamber door. He allows himself the thought that his lovely Lenore is knocking but dismisses the thought as quickly as it arrives. On second glance, the knocking seemed to be coming from his window, and when he opened it, in flew a majestic raven. The raven settled “upon a bust of Pallas”, the Greek goddess of wisdom, whose forename is Athena. She adopted the name Pallas...
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...In life there are many ups and downs. During the loss of a loved one, you are faced with many emotions. In “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, it talks about a man who has suffered a tragic loss of his loved one Lenore. As he was sitting in his house one night he heard a tapping on his door. The man was very frightened, when he opened the door a savage raven flew in. The sorrowful narrator asks the bird many questions and in hopes he will leave soon. In the story the symbol of the raven can be interpreted in many different ways such as: a sign of evil, loneliness, and sorrow. Ravens are known to be a sign of bad luck and evil. When the raven showed up it put out a great sense of evil. In the writing it says ,“What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore (Poe 71).” These words the man uses to describe the bird such as ghastly, gaunt, and ominous all trigger an emotion of fright and fear, and the feeling of evil. With the author using repetition of the letter “g” it created a more suspenseful and intense feeling. The raven as if tormented the man. In some cases when you experience heartbreak it almost makes it easier of being afraid, afraid of living, living without the person you thought you would never live without. The raven’s eyes could pierce or burn any weak man’s soul and he did just that, (to the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core (74).” Eyes can show a thousand things and can show someone something they have never seen or felt for themself...
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...The Raven, perhaps Edgar Allen Poe’s most successful and popular piece, tells the story of a lonely man’s interactions with a raven. The man, who is most likely Poe, is missing his wife, Lenore and when an unlikely talking raven appears in his room, he begins to ask it certain questions about his wife. Each answer from the raven drives him closer and closer to insanity. Due to the use of a number of various literary devices, the poem is deeply haunting. Poe used repetition, personification, and juxtaposition to progress the plot and increase the overall effectiveness and depth of the poem. The first, and most prevalent literary device that Poe used, was repetition. Throughout the poem, every stanza is ended with “nothing more” or “nevermore”. These usually came in response to Poe’s questions, which are mostly about his lost love, Lenore. Since the raven’s every response was “nevermore”, this showed us how hopeless Poe is in the poem. We are able to understand, through the raven’s repetition, that Poe’s situation will forever be bleak and his pain will not be alleviated. This makes the poem feel much more effective and powerful. Knowing that Poe will always be in a state of deep depression and pain makes the reader feel for him, therefore, increasing the overall emotional impact of the poem. Poe’s second literary device, was personification. One of the most important parts of the poem is the Raven’s response to Poe’s rants and questions. He responds to all of them by simply...
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...Edgar Allan Poe uses diction in his poem “The Raven” to create an eerie, chilling, and dark mood. To start, in the first stanza when Poe is setting the scene, he says: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary” (st. 1). He uses “midnight dreary” and “weak and weary” specifically to create a dark, foreboding mood throughout the poem. The second example of Poe using diction to create a chilling mood comes after the narrator hears a knock at his door: “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, / And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor” (st. 2). Poe is using examples of death to create his dark mood here, using “bleak December” and a “ghost”, to relate to dead trees and dark skies. Next, Poe enhances his dark mood when the narrator asks the raven what its name is: “Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore- / Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!” (st. 8). Poe here is referring to the Devil and describes the raven as “grim and ancient”, which deepens the eerie darkness Poe is trying to create. Another example of Poe using diction to create an eerie mood is when the narrator is beginning to lose his mind, saying “Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore” (st. 11). His use of “dirges”, or funeral songs, and “melancholy burden bore” adds to his overall mood of chilling darkness and the eerie mood in “The Raven”. Later, when the narrator is losing his mind, he says...
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...As Poe’s life crumbled around him, he would write his most successful and famous writing piece. Poe’s life gradually took a toll on him, as the women in his life succumbed to death until he was brought to insanity. In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven,” the the narrator is a reflection of Poe life. The narrator connects to Poe with Lenore representing his love Virginia, and Poe’s mental deterioration to insanity. The Story pits the narrator against his misery and sorrow for his love Lenore. Lenore to the narrator is a reflection of Poe’s relationship with his wife Virginia. In the beginning of “The Raven” the narrator refers to his wife as “the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.” This is similar to how Poe perceived his wife Virginia as such a source of joy and beauty (11). In his recent biography of Poe, Peter Ackroyd maintains that "in his art and in his life, [Poe] fell in love with dying women" (Scraba). Poe can directly relate to the narrator’s “sorrow for the lost Lenore,” it serves as a reference to Poe’s misery from the loss of his wife Virginia (10). Poe reacted very severely to the death of Virginia. Her death can be directly associated to Poe being “an alcoholic, a drug addict, a manic-depressive, and a misogynist, and therefore his works reflect his diseased mind” (Scraba). As “The Raven” progresses, the narrator mentally grows more and more insane, similar to Poe throughout his life. As the narrator sees the raven he presumes to himself that “on...
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...Edgar Allan Poe creates an extremely bleak and ominous setting by simply using sound devices. Every creepy story can tell about an old hag in a barn that eats people, but it does really sound scary unless you say it in a certain way. “The Raven,” for example, is a story about a man who goes insane while talking to a raven that has entered his house. It starts out by setting the scene, and already uses a specific meter to aid the mood. The most obvious device he uses is the repetition of “-ore” at the end of every second, fourth, fifth, and sixth line in every stanza. He ends the first stanza with “‘Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, ‘Tapping at my chamber door.’/Only this, and nothing more”(st.1). He repeats this “-ore” sound throughout the entire poem even at the end when the narrator is going insane at the very end, there is “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!” (st. 17). This continuation of “-ore” through the poem, darkens the entire story. Similarly, he uses an internal rhyme scheme to increase the repetition in the story. To prove that the man is going insane, he repeats the same sounds over and over inside of each stanza. After all, the definition of insanity is repeating something the exact same way and expecting a change. Poe even brings this into his first stanza when he seemingly whispers the words “While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly, there came a tapping,/as of some one...
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... In the poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, the speaker details one night during a period of sadness and madness in which a raven flies into his room and talks to him. The speaker uses diction, symbolism, and allusion to present the loneliness, hopelessness, and darkness that he experiences throughout the night and how it takes a toll on his mind. The diction in “The Raven” helps to set the mood of the poem, which is gloomy and dark. The poem starts off with, “Once upon a midnight dreary.” This phrase automatically tells the reader that the rest of the poem is going to be scary and dark, and the word “dreary” represents hopelessness. The speaker also says in the second stanza his experience took place “in the bleak December.” “Bleak” is another word for bad, and the month of December often signifies death, darkness, and coldness, all of which further contribute to the gloomy mood. The speaker successfully puts the reader in a world of darkness and fear, which helps the reader to further understand what the speaker is going through during this dark night. Symbolism is another tactic used by the speaker to support the isolation and hopelessness he feels. There are two main symbols presented in this poem; Lenore and the raven. Lenore is the first symbol the reader is exposed to, as the speaker says “sorrow for the lost Lenore.” The reader automatically assumes that Lenore must be dead, and that she was a person of high significance to the speaker. She symbolizes something that...
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...“The Raven”, by Edgar Allan Poe, was one of the scariest poems ever written in its time. Even though it doesn’t seem very scary to us today, it can still be considered as a very creepy story. The narrator is almost being psychologically tortured by this bird who just appeared out of nowhere. The worst part is that he is being tortured because the bird is saying he will never his wife Lenore again, even in heaven. The central idea of this text is that the narrator can’t cope with the demise of her wife, Lenore. You can see throughout the story by the tone that the Raven and the narrator throughout the poem. On the fourth line of the fifth stanza it says, “And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, ‘Lenore!’ This I whispered,” this line definitely proved that the narrator still had hope that she was still alive, it’s sort of like he’s in the denial stage of grief; the narrator believes that Lenore is still alive and it basically says Lenore in a desperate tone because of the exclamation mark. The grief of the narrator is even expressed directly on the last three lines of the second stanza. It says, “From my books of surcease of sorrow---sorrow for the lost Lenore--- For the Rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore--- This it is, and nothing more.” based on that quote, you can see that he feels terrible for Lenore, by just using one word, sorrow, it’s mentioned a lot in that quote. Those quotes help develop the central idea that the narrator is having a tough...
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...In Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Raven” is an intricate story of life’s shortness and how desperate individuals are to reclaim moments of loved ones or friends who they may have lost. Consequently, in "The Raven" through the anger that emerges as the man grieves, leads him down a path of unwanted deprivation, and self-doubt. The individual clings to the belief that the answers to his lingering questions will come from the "mistreated raven" until his need to know becomes broken. Additionally, "The Raven" demonstrates the inner workings of a man's mind, as a representation of grief and signifying how desperate people can become because of it. This story demonstrates an individual’s inability to escape the depression and grief of a lost lover and presents how easily it can overcome people. This consequence presented by the individual's unending need to live in the past of his lover, immersing himself in his sorrow and causing him to stay stagnant in life. Poignantly he does this even though his grief can only loosen by accepting the finality of his lover’s fate and recognising that although they may never reunite, the love they shared will never fade. Allen’s poem displays the destructiveness of loss and the difficulty associated with coping. However, “The Raven” has only demonstrated one side of grief in that the grief consumes the mind of the individual by their constant persistence regarding the individual. The poem does not show how people can grow and begin to cherish everything...
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