Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven

How could a person imagine the severe suffering of a man after the loss of a dearest loved one? In Poe’s most famous poem ever written, “The Raven”, the reader gains insight into the poem’s narrator’s depression, sadness, and grief. The author, Edgar Allen Poe, in “The Raven” demonstrates the use of symbols and themes to highlight and create the morbid mood and essence of the poem that brings it to a higher level. Lenore is the first symbol the reader can identify as the center of Poe’s attention. Poe refers to her constantly throughout the poem, but, the reader does not actually learn that much about her; thus, she never becomes a full character but rather only a memory or reference to the past. In lines 10-11 the reader first hears

However, it does not take the reader long to know that Lenore has died, because Poe the reader then says “only the angels know her name” (Poe: “The Raven”). In line 83 the speaker says that he has fantasized about Lenore forever, and her memory has become a cure and haunts him. Now, all he wants is relief from his pain of thinking about her. In lines 94-95, the narrator mentions Lenore for the last time, and the mood makes a radical change from fear and resentment to sensational love. Poe feels entirely filled with love for this woman, he refers to her as “sainted”, “radiant”, and “rare” as if she is not human (Poe: “The Raven”). Poe transforms her to someone whom does not have human characteristics, she becomes a symbol of what Poe considers perfection and a heavenly saint (Poe: “The Raven”). Edgar Allen Poe’s biggest symbol in “The Raven” is the prominent bird that stays in the reader’s minds as they read the poem. In lines 38-40 Poe describes the entrance of the bird as if it is royalty, by the words “stately” and the phrase “mien or lord or lady perched above my chamber door” (Poe: “The Raven”). Poe places emphasis on the bird’s entrance to create the importance of the character and symbol in

The Night, darkness, and gloomy are all major symbols in the poem that represent nature’s mysteries. The reference to Plutonian causes the reader to think of everything that is associated with the underworld, darkness, death, and the afterlife. When the speaker first encounters the Raven, he accuses it of coming from “Nights Plutonian Shore”, the border between the living and the underworld. In the second to last stanza, the speaker no longer amused by the Raven, repeats the phrase “Nights Plutonian Shore”, suggesting the bird is a messenger from the dead, but not a messenger from heaven, but rather of blackness and despair (Jones: “The Raven and The Raven: Another Source of Poe’s Poem). In “The Raven” the poem explores the effects of death of a loved one, and it question if an afterlife exists where people will reunite with their lost loved ones. In the beginning of the poem, the narrator mourns and ponders in a dark bleak room in cold December (Poe: “The Raven”). He portrays himself as trying to find “surcease of sorrow” (Poe: “The Raven) by reading books. The reader can then infer that he reads to distract himself to escape the sadness and emotional pain from the loss of his