...July 16th 2014 The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is the best poem in the world. Poe uses an assortment of poetic techniques to shape The Raven into an interesting piece of literature to read. Poe uses symbolism, imagery, connotation, and a variety of sound devices in the poem to give it an efficient effect. In the poem, a man is resting in his room half reading and half falling asleep trying to forget his love he seems to be obsessed with the idea of, Lenore, when he receives a knock on his door. He opens the door to find no one there; he is a little afraid and then reassures himself that it’s the wind against the window. He opens the window so there isn’t any more knocking and in flies a raven. The man’s first instinct is to talk with the raven. He asks the raven its name and it replies “Nevermore”. The man begins asking more questions and the raven responds with the same word “Nevermore”. Eventually, he slowly stops asking questions and loses his sanity. Poe uses distinctive symbols within The Raven to represent various things. Poe’s first use of a symbol is the protagonist’s love he seems to be obsessed with, Lenore. In lines ninety-four to ninety-five is the man’s final time he mentions Lenore. He calls her "sainted," "rare" and "radiant." In the man’s sense, Lenore is unlike a real person. She is a symbol of what he thinks is a perfect, unspoiled and unattainable woman. Another symbol Poe uses is darkness in line twenty-four. Darkness represents...
Words: 1000 - Pages: 4
...“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe? Just about anyone who has finished high school has! In high school you read a lot of stories and poems that are boring, interesting, short, long, fiction, and nonfiction but you read them all for a reason. Edgar Allan Poe was already a working writer, trying to make a living paper by paper in the United States before copyright became a thing. Back then it was really hard to make money because people from England can steal U.S. writers work since, once again, there was no copyright laws. Poe made just enough money to make it by day by day by writing poems, spooky stories and some pretty harsh criticism to other writers work. Then out of nowhere in 1845, Poe published...
Words: 819 - Pages: 4
...criticism, all due to the combination of poetic devices with structure, imagery and symbolism of Leonor, the Raven and language such as The Night’s Plutonian Shore and Nepenthe, that together emphasize the themes of insanity, love and the supernatural. Edgar Poe uses several themes that are found throughout his creative works. It includes the tragic death of a beautiful woman at a young age and the grief of the young man whose affection for his lost love transcends the physical boundaries of death and life (Got Poetry). This supports Poe's fascination with the imagery of young lovers separated by death. Throughout the poem the young man (narrator) slips into insanity, which now begins to question the existence of the Raven. The motif of the Raven as the omen of misery and sorrow also embodies grief caused by loneliness and separation. This is the central confrontation of the poem, bringing out the idea of a conflict between man and nature. It is these themes of madness, love and the paranormal that are the focus of the poem. Imagery and symbolism is used to make poetry come alive, giving the reader the immediate connection to the theme and the poet's attempt to find the truth. Lenore is constantly mentioned and is the main focus of the narrator’s obsessive thoughts. Though she lacks the qualities of a character, she is an idea and a memory, making her one of the symbols in the poem. With the use...
Words: 956 - Pages: 4
..."The Raven" is a beautifully written, yet dark narrative poem by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published on January 29, 1845, it marks Poe’s opening the door into recognition. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a grieving lover, outlining the man's slow fall into madness. "The Raven" was first accredited to Poe in print in the New York Evening Mirror. Its publication made Poe widely popular in his lifetime, yet brought him no financial attainment. Soon reprinted, mocked, and illustrated—opinion is divided as to the poem's standing, but it nonetheless it remains one of the most famous poems ever written. The poem itself contains mystery, laid out by his style. His style, alludes mystery by the use of ambiguity. Not only is the theme itself extremely ambiguous, but this ambiguity is brought on by his use of diction—the words he chooses are ambiguous, and this hinders the straightforwardness of the theme, creating it to also be ambiguous. Some of the ambiguous vocabulary he uses are the words soul, angels, chamber, nevermore, and raven. The soul is defined as the spiritual part of a human being, regarded as immortal. The soul has multiple meanings, differing by cultures and perceptions. The soul can be denoted as the God within—the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans. It can be symbolized as survival or eternity, as the soul is believed to survive death and be subject to happiness or misery in a life to come. Furthermore, the soul...
Words: 1508 - Pages: 7
...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...
Words: 613 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 1270 - Pages: 6
...Museum Visit Paper Through the visit of The First Peoples Collection of the McCord Museum, many Indigenous clothing, ornaments and pictures serve as elements to complete class lectures. For instance, the Raven Rattle is a good example showing the respect that Aboriginal people have toward the spirit of the animals. In their culture, animals contributed to the world creation and ensured the survival of human (Aboriginal Worldviews). Another concept which enhance class lecture is the symbol of circle. Many pieces of art feature the inclusion of the circle. In fact, the circle is a sacred symbol of the cycle of life. It suggests connection and interdependence of all form of life. Moreover, the concept of renewal and revitalization can be found in many Indigenous clothing. After being exposed to Western culture, the Aboriginal people combined their tradition clothing forms with the Western techniques and styles. This combination shows the respect and recognition that Aboriginal people have for Western culture. During the visit of The First Peoples Collection, one of the most interesting elements would be that each items have a unique function and spiritual signification. The questions arising after the visit are: What happens if an Aboriginal individual do not respect the spirit world? Does hierarchy exists within Aboriginal society? In the exhibition, the equipments for hunting, fishing, and travelling seem to be missing. Moreover, war equipments are absent as well. Therefore...
Words: 711 - Pages: 3
...“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...
Words: 822 - Pages: 4
...The poems “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe are different poems, but very similar. The Raven is about a man that lost his wife, Lenore, and a raven flies to his window. The Raven sits above his door and only says," nevermore." The raven haunts the man because it reminds him of his wife. On the other hand, Annabel Lee is a poem about a man who is obsessed with Annabelle Lee when she may not even love him. The two poems are different in that they handle the loss of the person they love differently. They are the same because they both lose someone close to them. The narrator in The Raven handles grief very differently than the narrator in Annabel Lee. When the narrator's wife, Lenore, dies the raven flies into the room and the raven...
Words: 525 - Pages: 3
...“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe was a famous writer who is well known for his poem, “The Raven.” In this poem, “Edgar Allan Poe tells a horror story within the structure of a poem- He employs language, rhyme scheme, rhythm, symbolism, and punctuation as tools to convey his message. The poem has an overall tone of loneliness, a universal theme.” (2) There are a lot of symbols that helps to understand the sadness, emotions, and the depression that is going on with man in this poem. There is a lost love and the man misses his beloved. He wrote this poem with such darkness and agony. “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,” (1) is the first line that automatically starts off depressing and emotional. Knowing the background of Edgar Allan Poe, we can conclude that he was upset and emotionally disturbed. In 1842, Virginia (Edgar Allan Poe’s wife) had become sick with tuberculosis which caused Edgar Allan Poe to into a deep depression. (65) For five years he watched his wife suffer. In the middle of the man’s weary pondering, he is interrupted by a tapping on his “chamber door.” But no one answers when he asks who it could be. In the second stanza, it states that time setting in was in December. “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December.” (7) One can conclude that December can symbolize a feeling of loneliness, sadness, depression, and being cold. In this poem, the character in this story has been feeling weary, as he sits and...
Words: 1252 - Pages: 6
...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”....
Words: 685 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 473 - Pages: 2
...smell of their favorite food, or the meeting with a raven who only says a single solemn word: “Nevermore”. For the speaker in Edgar Allen Poe’s beautifully morbid and grief stricken poem, “The Raven”, their attitude towards the raven’s sad words of truth changes from fear to confusion to finally grief and anger; illustrated through Poe’s word choice, allusion, and tone. At the start of Poe’s tragic poem, the speaker’s attitude towards the Raven (then the unknown knocker)...
Words: 922 - Pages: 4
...alone and sad in a moment of your life? Edgar Allan Poe reflects on his poem “The Raven” this two major feelings. In his poem he talked about the loss of his love, but in reality she was already death. He stood at the door watching the darkness and emptiness when he opened it, he was trying to figure what the tapping meant. Suddenly when he goes back to his chamber the tapping happened again and it was on his window, when he opened a raven got inside and perched on the bust of Pallas, the goddess of wisdom in Greek mythology, while speaking non-sense words he understood because it meant something for him whenever he asked a question to the raven. The raven symbolizes death, so in his mind he thought that it was time for him to go. Sadness, loneliness, and death are the main feelings of this poem which makes this poem one of the darkest poems I ever read. Sadness is a deep feeling of losing somebody or retain memories to a tragic moment in life. I have felt sad before, when I was young my mother was in danger of dying but I was there the whole time so she felt strong and made it out alive. In this case the feeling of sadness is because the protagonist has lost his true love and he is wondering when she is coming back, the truth is Lenore, the name of the woman he loves, is not coming back. Loneliness is one of the biggest fears of any human that’s why the protagonist felt comfortable when the raven replies “nevermore” to his question, are you going to leave? Darkness was everywhere...
Words: 562 - Pages: 3
...Jonathon Soto Mon. Wed. 9:10-10:35 English 102 Rough Draft In the poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, there are many possible themes the author summits. He covers love, madness, the supernatural, and man vs. the natural world. Next, most importantly Edgar Allan Poe discusses greatly the theme of grief and how it feels to lose someone. The Dark mysterious side of the mind is often present in many of Poe’s works. Also, through the use of tone and theme we as readers are able to depict the true meaning behind these creative poems. “The Raven” has great examples of poetic devices like rhyme scheme, meter, rhythm, and much more. All these different types of elements ensure a better and creative insight on Poe’s astonishing writings. First of all, throughout the poem “The Raven” there are many different poetic devices he uses to try and amplify the theme he wisely describes. In the very beginning Poe shares “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary” (line 1). He used meter to help describe the setting and tone right from the start. This line sets the mood in the poem and provides evidence that it is night time and he’s all alone in his house. Next, Poe constantly points out how the main character is going through a loss of someone he loved. One of the themes in this poem is grief and how this man deals with it. The narrator states “From my books surcease of sorrow-sorrow for the lost Lenore” (line 10). He loses a person by the name of Lenore...
Words: 1243 - Pages: 5
