Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven

Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven

Poets can use many different devices to get their point across. Creating the melancholic tone in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" Poe uses many devices to introvert the effect of the crisis of hell; this is unusually moving and somewhat attractive to the reader. Of all melancholy topics, Poe wish to use the one that was universally understood, death, specifically death involving a beautiful woman. He doesn't stop using poetic devices throughout the writing especially when he is trying to get an effect out of the reader. Even one of the main characters, the Raven, is a symbol. A raven is usually the symbol of something dark and sinister. A raven is also a sign of death. Poe does not use poetic devices to just describe characters, but his way of writing also becomes part of the plot and gives the reader clues on what exactly happened or is going on.

It can be argued that the Raven is possibly a figment of the imagination of the narrator, obviously upset over the death of Lenore. The narrator claims in the first stanza that he is weak and weary. He is almost napping, as he hears the rapping at the door, which could quite possibly make the sound something he heard in a near dream-like state, possibly not even an actual sound. He is terrified of being alone in the chamber he is in when the poem takes place. The "sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before. (13)" When the poem opens, he is reading over books of "forgotten lore. (2)" His imagination is probably already running wild, the surroundings are helpful to the situation he finds himself in. The word chamber implies a cold, rigid feel, like the narrator has shut himself away f...

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...lf-inflicted torture of the narrator. All these things can attest to the mental state of the narrator due to the loss of Lenore.

As the poem comes to a close, we see that the narrator will forever be reminded of death and the fact that he, as a part of his nature, cannot understand it. And he will be forever reminded of Lenore and his loss, as the raven is sitting there above the door-"and the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting on the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door…(103)" "Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door, (101)" he pleads. But the raven will not go. The raven will sit above the narrator's door every day for eternity to remind the narrator that he cannot understand death. And left under the shadow the raven casts on the floor is the soul of the narrator that shall be lifted-nevermore!