Poem Analysis: The Raven By Edgar Allen Poe

Jessica Tavernier
Dr. Liz Ann Baez Aguilar
English 1302
20 March 2015 “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe represents a major figure in the world of literature solely based on his profound short stories, poems and theories. He demonstrates control of language and technique, while incorporating his inspirational and original imagination. Poe’s poetry and short stories greatly influenced the French Symbolists of the late nineteenth century, who in return altered the direction of modern literature. It is this philosophical and artistic transaction that accounts for much of Poe’s importance in literary history. In the poem, “The Raven”, Poe investigates the loss of ideal beauty and the difficulty of regaining it. Which in this case,
the poem is narrated by a young man who laments the untimely death of his beloved all while being emotionally tormented by a raven’s ominous repetition of “Nevermore” in answer to his question about the probability of an afterlife with his deceased lover.
In this poem, Poe uses several symbols to take the poem to a higher level. The most obvious symbol is the raven. When Poe had decided to include repetition with the word “nevermore” he found that it would be most effective if he used a non-reasoning creature to utter the word. It was very clever of him not to use a human, since the human would be able to use logical reasoning to answer the questions. However, it is important that the answers to the questions are already known, to illustrate the self-torture to which the narrator exposes himself to. Also, Poe chose the raven because they are known as the bird of ill omen and it would be more suitable for the mood. Another symbol is the bust of Pallas. Why did the raven decide to perch on the goddess of wisdom? One reason could be because it would lead the narrator to believe that the raven
spoke from wisdom, and not just repeating it’s only “stock and store,” and to signify the scholarship of the narrator. Another reason for using the Pallas in the poem was, according to Poe himself, simply because of the “sonorousness of the word [Pallas] itself” (Poe, 1850). A less obvious symbol might be the use of “midnight” in the first verse, and “December” in the second verse. Both midnight and December symbolize the end of something, and also the anticipation of something new, or perhaps to foreshadow change in the near future. The chamber in which the narrator resides is used to signify the loneliness of the man, and the sorrow he feels for the loss of his beloved Lenore. The room is described to be richly furnished serving as a reminder the narrator of his lost love adding an effect of beauty in the poem. The tempest outside, is used in combination with the answer “nevermore,” to let the narrator realize that he should not try to seek a moral in what has been previously narrated (Poe, 1850).
The melancholy tone of “The Raven” relies as much on its musical effect, Poe uses rhyming words in the same line (internal rhyme), a word at the end of one line that rhymes with a word at the end of another line (end rhyme), alliteration, and a regular pattern of accented and unaccented syllables.
This pattern uses a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, with a total of sixteen syllables in each line. The meaning of the words and how the stanza ends with “nevermore” each time gives you less hope each time you read more and more of it. The tone also derives from the topic, which is death, and the mournful language of the speaker, who is a lonely man left without his beautiful lover are also reflected in the repetition used throughout the
text.
This poem made me really rethink the idea of poetry. After reading, “The Philosophy of Composition” also written by Edgar Allen Poe, I realized that “The Raven” was written with some type of formula. Then when I researched the poem further I actually realized that “The Raven” was written backwards. The effect is determined first, and the whole plot is set; then the web grows backwards from that single effect. . I thought there was no right/wrong way to write poetry, I thought it was natural with no means of a formula. It seems when you apply a formula it would set limits as to the chronological events of the poem but Poe did just the opposite of that.

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Philosophy of Composition." http://www.poedecoder.com/Qrisse/works/philosophy.php, 1850.

Rooney, Kathleen. "The Raven." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

emotionally tormented by a raven’s ominous repetition of “Nevermore” in answer to his question about the probability of an afterlife with his deceased lover.emotionally tormented by a raven’s ominous repetition of “Nevermore” in answer to his question about the probability of an afterlife with his deceased lover.