Loneliness And Sorrow In Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven

Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “The Raven”, illustrates the overwhelming feeling of loneliness and sorrow that comes with the loss of someone special. In the poem, “The Raven”, the speaker opens up by explaining the setting of the poem as a “dreary” night and that he is “weak and weary” (Line 1). The speaker notes that he is full of sorrow on that night, with his mind focused on his lost loved one. He is so focused, he becomes delusional, hearing a tapping at his door. He ignores it, and goes on how it is in the middle of December while he is in front of a fire. He finally gets up to answer the door, only to find no one standing there, The loneliness overwhelms him, as the only thing he hears are the whispers of “Lenore”. With his “soul,burning” he closes the door, enraged (30). Again, though, the tapping continues, but this time it is at his window. He opens the window, and in comes a raven. After asking numerous questions, the Raven only replies with “nevermore”. The speaker takes this as a connection to Lenore, who he will “nevermore” see. However, while the speaker is thinking of Lenore, he is being distracted by things around him.
The imagery is used to give the reader a sense of what the speaker himself is seeing. In this line, “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor” (7-8) the speaker is describing the setting as it being in the very cold stages of December, while he is in front of a fire, shedding its ashes. Another example is in the line “And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before” (13-14) where the speaker is describing the curtains, waving back and forth, are giving him nightmares, and scary thoughts he has never had before, even after losing