Edgar Allen Poe's the Raven Essay Example

In his poems and stories, Edgar Allen Poe often returns to the same themes: loneliness, lost love, insanity, and depression. In his poem, “The Raven”, his theme is grief, which is also related to the string of themes he usually incorporates into his works. However, for this specific poem, Poe uses an abundant amount of literary devices to expand on his theme of grief and describe it in a way that readers will be able to understand his feelings throughout this poem. There are many literary devices like alliteration, different types of imagery, assonance, symbolism, metaphors, similes, and more. So in some reader’s opinion, Edgar Allen Poe uses the theme of grief to draw the reader’s interest in his poem, “The Raven”. Poe uses symbolism, imagery, and repetition in his poem, “The Raven”. One of the main literary devices that Poe uses in “The Raven” to develop the theme of grief is symbolism. Poe brings out the thoughts and inner feelings of the speaker. The poem begins with the speaker sitting in what seems to be a library, pondering over books of the past, when suddenly there is a knocking, and the speaker gets up to open the door. He throws the door open and seeing no one there he returns to his books, when suddenly a raven appears through the window. The raven comes in, its black feathers shining, and appears to be smiling as he watches the speaker intently. “Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -....on the Night’s plutonian shore!” The speaker seems to feel, at the beginning, that the raven was sent from the Underworld. This is symbolized through the words “Night’s Plutonian Shore”; it’s a connection between this world and the Underworld with the River Styx. Pluto is the Roman name for the Greek god Hades, the god of death. When this is combined with “Night” it seems to suggest an even greater meaning. Throughout his poem, Poe is constantly using night, especially midnight, as a symbol for death. The word “Shore” symbolizes the big