Most Notable And Famous Authors

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

In this first stanza alone Poe has not only set the mood and tone for the rest of the poem, but he has introduced the question or the "pre-introduction" of this new, unseen, unknown, character. The question is not actually asked, "Who is there at my door?" Yet, from the speaker’s response to the tapping we know he asked himself this question internally and then answered aloud. This is sort of like the reader is asking themselves, "Who is at the door?" so Poe has the speaker answer aloud for the reader to "hear". Now in the reader’s mind they have an answer to this question and now the reader, and also the speaker, will inevitably want to know who this visitor at the door is who is attempting to break up this late, depressing, lifeless night.

In the second stanza we find that his bleak and gloomy demeanor is caused by the grief of a woman named Lenore. Poe uses a litany of words that wring his emotions and soul onto the pages. He uses the word "sorrow" to describe his grief for Lenore. We know she has died because he says the angels call her Lenore because here (in the land of the living) she is nameless. "Sad" and "uncertain" are used to describe how he feels about the slight rustling of the curtains in his chamber because he is obviously thinking of Lenore often and wishing he could see her again so these rustlings in the curtain, to him, signify that Lenore may yet be with him still. At this point in the poem he returns to the unknown and unseen visitor who is at his door. Right now the reader probably believes, as is the speaker, that it is the ghost of his beloved Lenore who is "entreating entrance" into his chamber. He mentions his heart is basically racing and to still these thoughts and feelings he repeats to himself:

""'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-

This it is, and nothing more.""

The part where the man states, "This it is, and nothing more" is him trying to convince himself that it is not the ghost of Lenore at his chamber door. It must be remembered that it is midnight, it is dark, bleak, depressing, and he is missing a dead woman he loves, thinks about often, and is still grieving for so entertaining the idea of a ghost at the door is not so far-fetched. He is practically scaring himself so in the last line he is trying to settle his nerves by trying to convince himself it is merely a late-night visitor and that he is letting his imagination take the best of him.

Now is a good point to examine Poe and what his state of mind might have been while writing this poem. It is obvious through his writing that he was a depressed man and in his biographies it states that he was often intoxicated in public and was once fired from his job in Richmond where he was an editor for his drinking. Around the same time he received the editing job he married his thirteen year-old cousin Virginia Clemm. Many of the people in Poe’s life left him or died (which he may have viewed as them leaving him). "Frances Allan, the only mother he had ever known, was dying of tuberculosis and wanted to see him before she died. By the time Poe returned to Richmond she had already been buried (Poe Museum, 2010)." Poe’s poem "Annabelle Lee" describes his woe and anguish at having his beloved taken away from him and at one point even chalks it up to the angels being so jealous of their love that they parted them out of envy. All of the hurt Poe experienced in his life came through in his writings and "The Raven" is no different. This poem is not about ghosts haunting a man at a late hour, but about the ghosts of one’s own mind.

After the speaker opens his door and finds nothing there he continues to wonder about what could be the cause of the tapping and at the end of each stanza continues to try to convince himself that it is the wind, the darkness, and merely echoes playing tricks on him, and nothing more.

"Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;"

In these two lines is where the first appearance of the famous raven takes place. It is seen through the word "flung" that the speaker believes he has finally found the place where the noises are coming from and is eager to discover the source. He flings the shutters open and it is the raven who does the "many a flirt and flutter". This means that the bird’s wings are waving open and shut quickly, and it is fluttering. Then the raven settles itself and steps into the chamber without fear. Poe continues to describe the raven as coming into the chamber with no respect or acknowledgement of the speaker, and then with a manner of grace and nobility the raven takes flight to sit above the door of the chamber (Davidson 87). This description of the behaviour of the raven makes the reader think that the bird is odd. Many times when people get close to wild birds they take flight away from them, yet this bird is practically knocking to get in. Not only that but when the window is opened the raven then comes in with a haughty attitude like he deserves to be there and sits above the door instead of immediately flying away when faced with a human.

From the time the speaker is faced with the raven he begins to ask questions to himself about it and it continuously seems to have an answer that fits every question, "Nevermore" and from there each line in the poem ends with the word "nevermore". This is a slight shift in the poem’s pattern but it is only to adapt to this new character and leave us with a sullen and depressing word at the end of each question (Lowell). As the speaker progresses his thoughts return to Lenore and he begins asking questions to the raven which he undoubtedly must know what the answer will be even if the raven is just uttering something unintelligently. He speaks of Lenore being in heaven and the raven of course replies with "nevermore". This begins to madden him to even greater depths and he demands the bird to part and to leave him alone. Of course the raven answers the way he knows it would with, "nevermore". In the end the poem goes back to the calmness of the first stanza and it seems that the speaker has resigned himself to having this guest with him from now on.

"And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;"

Then he seems resigned to once again move back into his depressed state of mind and knowing he will indeed never see his love Lenore again:

"And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted- nevermore!"

His soul will never again be lifted because he knows he will never see Lenore again, whereas before he had at least a hope of a ghostly visit from Lenore, but now he has resigned himself to, and accepted, the truth.

"The Raven" takes the reader through a myriad of feelings through the entire poem. From a dismal and even spooky beginning, to a mysterious and exciting middle dotted with passionate anger and longing for a lost loved one. The raven merely represents what the man in the poem was not able to face on his own; that Lenore is no more and she will not return to him, not even as a ghost. Before in the poem it seemed the speaker was hopeful whenever a curtain rustled that it would be Lenore returning to him, yet it never was. Here at the end through the persistence of the raven the man is able to finally accept that he will never see her again. The raven acts as an outside force to help him finally face the truth and even though it does not seem to help the man’s mood any, it is still an important part of life that one has to accept and deal with knowing that loved ones who have died are gone. (Silverman)

Poe’s eerie writing style plays up the depressing and saddening parts of dealing with grief, and also strikes a chord of horror in the reader with the mood and tone that was set in the very beginning. It is not a surprise why Edgar Allen Poe has become such a famous author today with his ability to surround his readers in the atmosphere of the stories and poems he writes and draw them into his personal world of darkness. Yet, a question that still lingers in his dark writing: did Poe ever truly find peace in his soul? "Quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore.’"