The Raven Poem Analysis

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” is a dark reflection on lost love, death and loss of hope. This poem dramatizes the emotions of the poet, who has lost his beloved, and unsuccessfully tries to distract himself from sadness, through studying books. However, books are little help and a single visitor, a Raven, disturbs his solitude. Through the poem Poe uses symbolism, imagery and tone to enforce his theme of sadness and loss. Also, with the use of assonance, alliteration, rhyme and repetition, the poem achieves a melodic level that almost feels like singing when read out loud! I’m captivated by the new viewpoint Poe brought to my attention about death. While death’s topic is usually associated with either sympathy or horror, Poe succeeded in portraying a feeling caught between the two. “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;” (Poe, 789). Poe has communicated this poem through the use of abstract language and connotation. The abstract phrase repeated throughout the poem is the word “Nevermore” combined with
“The night’s plutonian shore…” (Poe, 791). This phrase is repeated a few times in the poem, and the narrator uses it when addressing the bird. The word ‘plutonian’ is used her as an adjective that is referring to Pluto (Roman God of the underworld, or in other words, hell). Hell can be directly associated with death, and even more, with an eternal suffering. Hell, according to the Roman Catholic Church, is the place where souls burn eternally once they’re dead. Therefore the quote above is an allusion that Poe has used to convey the eternal sorrow left after a loved one’s death. “Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget the lost Lenore” (Poe, 790). Here, the allusion expressed in the word ‘nepenthe’ a Greek word meaning “medicine for sorrow”. The narrator is begging for the ‘drug for