Edgar Allan Poes renowned poem The Raven shows the turbulent thoughts and feelings racing through the mind of a person who has lost a loved one. The narrator of the poem has recently lost his lover to deaths unyielding grasp. As a result, he is struck by the grief that accompanies such a death. Poe delineates the miserable, defeated state of the narrators mind through diction, a proper setting, and symbolism. One tool that Poe uses in order to show how the narrators mind dwells on the death of his lover is his masterful use of select words and phrases to construct a mood of death and darkness.
Near the very beginning of the poem, an early example of this word choice lies in line 8: And each dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. This is a clear example of how the narrator is immersed completely in his lovers deathhe sees death in many of the inanimate objects in his environment. However, Poe does not stop here. Another excellent example of Poes skillful application of diction appears in line 16: ‘Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door/Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door.
Following these lines, the narrator of the poem opens the door and cries out Lenore, his lovers name. The word late has a double meaning in this context: it can be interpreted to mean either late at night or deceased. In this case, the narrator half-expects Lenore to be the one knocking at the door, and thus she is the late, or deceased, visitor. And finally, perhaps the most prominent and intriguing example of diction in The Raven is, surprisingly, not in English. Poe gave the name Lenore to the narrators lover for a clear reasonthe name is a near-perfect homophone of the words le noir in French, which means black.
Using this repeated reference to darkness, Poe creates a sense of gloom throughout the poem. Overall, the words and phrases Poe employs send constant messages to the readers minds, setting up an overall tone of darkness and despair that serves as an underlying foundation for the bleak storyline of and the history behind the poem. Also essential to the gloomy atmosphere of the poem is its setting, which symbolizes death, and further shows the turbulence in the narrators mind and heart.
Poe sets up his poem in the dreariness of some midnight in December, as is shown by the lines Once upon a midnight dreary and Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December (lines 1 and 6, respectively). The timeframe in which the poem takes its course represents the end of a regular, recurring cycle. Just as midnight suggests the end of one day, the month of December marks the end of a year. Similarly, Lenores death occurs at the end of yet another repeating cyclethe cycle of life. Poe also uses the narrators location in conjunction with the stormy weather to create an effect that matches the narrators emotions.
In The Raven, the narrator lives in a well-furnished, comfortable home submersed in a violent rainstorm. The room signifies the place in the narrators heart to which he retreats for shelter from the tempestuous reality of Lenores death. The storm can be labeled as pathetic fallacy, which, despite its unflattering name, is used exceptionally well in The Raven. In this instance of pathetic fallacy, the stormy weather indicates that the narrator of the poem is experiencing equally violent emotions.
The time and place of the poem reveal how the narrator attempts to escape the reality of his lovers death by locking himself up in the past, but also how he is tormented by the hostile truth. But by far the most powerful linguistic device that Poe employs is symbolism. In this poem, symbolism plays an extensive role in placing the readers in the narrators mind in order to allow them to experience his overwhelming feelings and share his emotions. The most obvious example of symbolism in The Raven is, of course, the raven itself.
According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, ravens consume much carrion, especially in winter. This description of ravens is surprisingly fitting in the poem, since the raven represents death, and death has taken Lenore. Thus, it almost seems that the raven has stolen Lenore, who is now carrion, from the narrator during December, a winter month. Death, or the raven, has consumed Lenore. From this establishment, another symbol can be derived from line 101: Take thy beak from out my heart. Here, the narrator speaks to the raven, who can also be seen as death.
When we replace the raven with death, it suddenly becomes clear that the narrators hidden meaning is Death, stop stabbing at my heart. This shows just how the narrator feels at the momentthe aching in his heart is akin to that caused by a stabbing wound, revealing the magnitude of the blow his heart took when Lenore died. The bust of Pallas Athena, on which the raven is never flitting, still is sitting (line 103) is also symbolic. The word bust has a double meaning, since it can mean either a statue depicting someones upper chest and head, or it can mean a womans breasts.
Because of this alternate meaning, the bust of Pallas Athena represents the female component in the narrators lifeLenorein several ways. The first way in which the bust symbolizes Lenore is that the bust is described to be pallid, or pale. Therefore, it is probably a stone sculpture, which relates to Lenores corpse well. A cold block of pale, unmoving stone is similar to a cold lump of pale, unmoving flesh. The second way in which the bust signifies Lenore is that the raven happens to choose the bust as the place it perches onto. It also says that it will move from the bust nevermore.
The meaning here is that death has conquered Lenore, and nothing will ever change that fact. Yet another link between the bust and Lenore is that Pallas Athena is a goddess, showing how the narrator loved Lenore to the point of her becoming a goddess in his eyes. And finally, the fourth and last way that the bust works as a symbol for Lenore is its placement. The bust is situated above the door of his room, which makes it seem as if the bust is leaving the room via the door, which is comparable to how Lenore has left the narrators life.
The powerful and abundant symbolism in the poem engraves a strong impression into the readers minds of the intense love that once existed between the narrator and Lenore, and of the equally intense grief that has replaced that love. The theme presented in The Raven applies whenever a person is taken from loved ones by death. The poem can be viewed as a warning to the readers never to get caught in the vicious web of dwelling in the past, since the past can never return, and no amount of pleading will ever sway deaths verdicts.
Here, Poe presents a typical example of the effects of death on the survivor, and shows, mainly through his heavy use of symbolism, the grief that accompanies death. He also warns us against falling into the traps laid out by this often overpowering grief. In The Raven, Poe advises us against getting lost in the reflections of the mirrors of the pastfor when the hammers of reality strike, the mirrors can provide little protection from its blows.