The Raven Analysis

The Raven Losing a loved one can be very difficult. However, grieving over a loss can have dangerous consequences. It could lead to depression or, in this case, madness. In the poem "The Raven," Edgar Allan Poe uses imagery and repetition to express the dark and depressing feelings that the speaker encounters while grieving over the death of Lenore. Imagery is effective in this poem to reveal its ominous mood. Poe uses dark words to create a gloomy setting at the start of the poem. He narrates, "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary" (1). The setting is in the middle of the dark and scary night, while he's tired. He explains the setting further by saying, "Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, / and each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor" (7, 8) He is in a cold and desolate atmosphere, in the middle of winter, and the fire starts to die off, creating a spooky mood. Repetition also helps to affect the sinister feeling. The word "nevermore" is repetitively used to convey a sense of hopelessness to the reader. The Raven constantly says, "'Nevermore'"(48, 60, 84, 90, 96, 102) in response to the speaker’s questions. Any hope that the speaker has of seeing his love, Lenore, ever again, on Heaven or Earth, is removed. He is then led to madness. More repetition is used to show this. For example, he says, "On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore - / Is there -is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!" (88, 89). He starts to become desperate, repeating his questions about relief from his suffering. The repeated use of these words make the speaker seem more desperate and helpless, asking more and more questions, only to constantly be put down by the raven. These uses of imagery and repetition greatly affect the mood that the speaker experiences in "The Raven." The darkness of the imagery presents how the speaker feels. The repetitive use of some words make the speaker