Poet's Corner

Explanation: "The Raven"

The opening lines identify the speaker as someone who feels tired and weak but is still awake in the middle of a gloomy night. He passes the time by reading a strange book of ancient knowledge. The first line of the poem contains alliteration of w in "while," "weak," and "weary" to produce the effect of unsteadiness. This line also sets the poem's rhythmical pattern and provides the first example of the use of internal rhyme in "dreary" and "weary."
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Lines 3-6

The speaker tells of becoming more tired and beginning to doze but being wakened by a sound that he assumes is a quiet knock. Internal rhymes of "napping," "tapping," and "rapping" along with repetition of these last two words, create a musical effect. This effect is also produced by alliteration of n. These sound devices and the steady rhythm of these lines are almost hypnotic. The use of "nothing more" is the first example of what will evolve into the refrain "Nevermore." In this first instance, the speaker presents the phrase in a low key, attached to his bland explanation that the tapping sound is "nothing more" than a late visitor knocking at his door.
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Lines 7-12

In this second stanza the narrator tells what he remembers about the setting and action at the time of the Raven's visit. It was December, the first month of winter and a time when the nights are longest, creating a mood of mystery. A fireplace had been lit, but now the fire was going out, and it cast an eerie glow. To set the mood, Poe uses mysterious and depressing words in these descriptions: "bleak," "dying," and "ghost." To escape his heavy mood, the speaker has been reading; he says it was a vain attempt to "borrow / From my books surcease of sorrow," that is, to find something in his books that would take his mind off the sadness he feels about his lost love, Lenore. He reveals that Lenore has died when he says that the angels call her by name. This time the word "evermore" is used in the refrain.
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Lines 13-18

The speaker tells that he was in a state of heightened sensibility because of his mood, the late hour, and the eerie setting. Reading ancient folklore, possibly of a supernatural nature, may also have added to his emotional state. The sound of the curtains as they move strikes his imagination wildly. Poe creates this sound by using onomatopoeia, or words that sound like what they describe ("rustling"), and alliteration, repeating s in line 13 and f in line 14. The speaker tries to calm down by telling himself twice that the tapping noise (introduced in stanza one) is only the sound of a visitor knocking on his door and "nothing more." The refrain works here as it did in the first stanza, but now it has been attached to a more emotionally charged situation.
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Lines 19-24

The speaker overcomes his emotional state and rationally calls out to the supposed visitor. But when he opens the door he finds only "darkness there and nothing more." The refrain this time has been employed to create a sense of mystery that follows a moment of rational behavior, overshadowing it.
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Lines 25-30

The lover tells that he stood looking out of his door, transfixed by the "darkness," the "silence," and the "stillness" while his imagination increased. Finally he whispered the name of his deceased lover, "Lenore," and he heard it echoed in the night. An abundance of words that use the sound d produces an alliteration that suggests the strong, rhythmical heartbeat of an excited person. The refrain has now been used after a mysterious and also slightly frightening experience, the "nothing more" contradicting the speaker's agitated state.
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Lines 31-36

At this point the speaker has not completely regained his composure, as shown by the image of his "soul ... burning." He returns to his room, but the tapping sound resumes, even louder, and the speaker determines this time to investigate the window as its source. The "nothing more" of the refrain again sounds of note of false confidence.
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Lines 37-42

The speaker finally reveals the source of the mysterious tapping noise — a bird. Upon opening the window, the speaker discovers a Raven who flies in and sits on top of the speaker's "bust of Pallas." Alliteration of fl creates the sound of wings flapping. The description of the Raven is of first importance in this stanza. The bird is "stately," reminding the speaker of ancient times, perhaps seeming to fly out of the books that the speaker tells of reading in stanza one. The Raven seems very purposeful, flying directly to perch on the high statue without regarding the narrator at all. Symbolism occurs in Poe's choice of "Pallas" as the Raven's perch. "Pallas" represents the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, sometimes known as "Pallas Athene," and so by placing the Raven above this bust Poe creates a situation in which wisdom has been placed underneath the Raven, a bird associated with death.
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Lines 43-48

The bird's dramatic presence strikes the lover so that he begins to forget his sadness. He finds humor in the situation, and in jest, begins to speak out loud, expressing his wonder about the Raven. He compares the bird to a lord whose "crest" (royal emblem) is missing. This comparison allows the reader to visualize the bird's sleek head and also to associate the bird with a character of dignity. In the suggestion that the bird has come from the "Plutonian shore," Poe calls upon the myth of Pluto, the God of the Underworld, the land of the dead in Greek mythology. The Raven, therefore, may be thought of as a creature from the land of the dead. In this stanza the refrain reaches its permanent form of "Nevermore," the answer given by the bird when spoken to regardless of what the narrator says. The predictability of this answer allows the reader to note the narrator's course of self-torture with each question that he asks, leading to a more distressing response as the poem progresses.
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Lines 49-60

The speaker tells of his amazement at the bird's appearance, its position on the bust, and its ability to speak. There is no indication that the lover truly believes the suggestions he made concerning the bird's origins (the "Plutonian shore" referred to in line 47); on the contrary, the speaker notes that the bird's reply was irrelevant, meaning it did not make sense. In the closing lines of the tenth stanza (lines 55-60) the speaker again makes an audible comment about the bird, and again the bird replies with the refrain. This time, though, as if the speaker had planned it, he has made a statement to which the response "Nevermore" makes sense. He has predicted the Raven's departure, and the Raven's response indicates that he will never depart.
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Lines 61-72

This time the speaker is "startled" in reaction to the Raven's answer because the speaker thinks it makes sense. Still using his reason rather than his emotions, the speaker rationalizes that the bird knows only this one word and has learned it by living with a person who himself used the word repeatedly in response to his own bad luck. With this explanation, the speaker feels amused, and he settles down on a comfortable chair to contemplate the Raven.
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Lines 73-78

In this, the thirteenth stanza, the speaker and the bird remain silent. A frightening image of the bird presents it with "fiery eyes" that "burned into" the speaker's heart. This description allows the reader to picture the Raven's red eyes and also associate the bird with evil. Poe reveals the narrator's silence in the phrase "no syllable expressing," a phrase that calls to mind the poem and its use of syllables and meter. The speaker's silence is a brooding time during which his mind wanders away from the Raven and back to the sorrows of lost love. The speaker thinks of Lenore as he sits on a "violet" colored "velvet" chair on which the "lamp-light" flickers. Because Lenore used to sit in that romantic spot, the speaker now begins to think of her again.
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Lines 79-84

Once the thought of Lenore re-enters the speaker's mind, his imagination and emotions again became active. He imagines that he smells the incense of angels. Quite likely, the couch on which he sits has the lingering scent of Lenore's perfume from the times she sat there before her death, but this rational explanation does not occur to the speaker. He prefers to think of the scent as a gift from God, noticing it provides a soothing experience that may help him forget his sadness. He cries out to himself, calling himself "Wretch." By this he means that he has sunk to a wretched state of grief. But now he hopes that with the angels' help — a potion of forgetfulness known as nepenthe — he has a chance to rest from the grief, to forget Lenore. When he suggests this out loud, the Raven who has also almost been forgotten, reasserts his presence with his one word, "Nevermore." In the context of the lover's thoughts, the bird's statement means that the speaker will never have a moment's rest from the sadness he feels over Lenore's death.
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Lines 85-90

In reaction to the Raven's response in the preceding line (line 84) the speaker calls the bird a "Prophet," and because the prophecy foretells of more suffering for the speaker, he calls the bird "evil" and suggests that it may be a "devil." He does not know if the Raven is merely a bird seeking refuge after a "tempest" (storm) or if it is an evil being "sent" by the "Tempter," that is, the devil. The speaker notes that the bird remains "undaunted" even though it is "desolate" and it seems "enchanted" even though it is in this sad house referred to as a "desert land," a "home by Horror haunted." This manner of referring to the bird and the speaker's home reveals that the speaker is becoming more distraught and less reasonable. After making these statements about the Raven, the speaker continues speaking out loud by asking "is there balm in Gilead?" (Gilead was known in Biblical times for its healing plants), meaning will he ever find a remedy for his sorrow. As expected, the Raven answers "Nevermore," and the speaker will be thrown into a deeper frenzy of despair.
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Lines 91-96

Setting himself up for more disappointment, the speaker continues to address the bird. He repeats the first line of the previous stanza, an indication that more of the same type of exchange will continue. This time the speaker asks if he will be reunited with Lenore after he himself dies, in an afterlife he refers to as "the distant Aidenn." In Poe's "The Philosophy of Composition" he identifies the speaker as one who has a penchant for self-torture, and this question with its anticipated answer of "Nevermore" provides proof of the speaker's character. In addition to the question itself, the speaker's description of himself as a "soul with sorrow laden" and his description of Lenore as a "sainted" and "rare and radiant maiden" reveal how low he places himself and how inaccessible and high he places Lenore in his memories of her.
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Lines 97-102

The speaker has lost his composure, as shown in the use of the word "shrieked." He yells to the Raven that it should leave and that it has spoken a lie. Note that the speaker's command for the Raven to depart — "leave loneliness unbroken" — could be interpreted to mean that he wishes to preserve his miserable state, another indication of his tendency to indulge in grief. The imagery used to describe the Raven continues to suggest its association with evil; the words, "fiend," "tempest," "night's Plutonian shore," "black plume," "lie," and the image of the Raven's "beak" in the narrator's "heart" reveal how scornful the narrator feels toward the bird. The bird does not literally have his beak in the lover's heart, for the Raven still remains on its perch above the door, but its utterance of "Nevermore" has wounded the lover emotionally.
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Lines 103-108

In this last stanza, the speaker describes his present situation. Until now, the poem has been a retelling of events that lead up to this stanza. Now the speaker reveals that the Raven remains in his room and that he, himself, remains despondent. Final associations of the bird with evil occur in the words "demon" and "shadow." The connection between the Raven's "shadow" and the speaker's "soul" in the last line of the poem suggests that the speaker believes himself to be cursed by the bird's presence. The symbolism of the physical location of the Raven, on top of the "pallid bust of Pallas" and above the "chamber door" must be noted. Since the bird has been associated with death and evil in the poem, his location suggests that these forces have overpowered wisdom, as represented by Pallas. The speaker can not escape his condition because his wisdom and its ability to produce rational behavior have been overpowered by his emotional response to Lenore's death. Since the symbolic Raven and bust of Pallas preside over the door, the entrance and exit to the speaker's "chamber" or residence, the speaker has no escape from the situation. One may note that the word "chamber" calls to mind the chambers of the heart, legendarily the residence of emotional love. So the speaker, it seems, will never emerge above his depression over the loss of his love, Lenore; his ability to be reasonable will always be overshadowed by his thoughts of Lenore's death. His "soul" will "nevermore" feel happiness.

Source: Exploring Poetry, Gale, 1997.