Literary Analysis of the Raven
“The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe
“Quoth the Raven ‘nevermore’” (Raven: 48). In “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. The speaker is continually losing his mind as he morns the death of his lover, Lenore. Poe was able to maintain a melancholy feeling throughout his poem using the refrain “nevermore” and following some very strict, self-set, rules. Every stanza in the poem uses the same rhyme scheme, ABCBBB. He used many literary devices including alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia. His rhythm is also very structured and unwavering.
The rhyme scheme used by Poe in his poem “The Raven” is described as ABCBBB. Every stanza in “The Raven” follows this rhyme scheme to create a very structured poem. Poe also uses internal rhyme where two words in the third rhyme will rhyme with each other and with another word in the fourth line. In the second stanza the word morrow in line three rhymes with the word borrow also in line three and sorrow in line four. Poe also uses repetition to not only conform to his rhyme scheme, but to emphasize the word as well. “’Wretch,’ I cried, ‘thy God hath lent thee – by these angels he hath sent thee” (Raven: 81) is an example of Poe using repetition to rhyme. Poe used trochaic octameter for his poem. Poe used many other devices in his poem such as alliteration and consonance. “Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;” (Raven: 26) is an example of alliteration and consonance. Poe used alliteration to increase the effect of the line. “The silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain” (Raven: 13) is an example of an onomatopoeia used by Poe in his poem.
The tone of “The Raven” is morbid and depressing. Poe used a man who had lost his lost Lenore to deepen the melancholy feeling, because losing a loved one is the grimmest subjects there is. Poe had a raven, an already grim animal, to repeat the word “nevermore” whenever the narrator would speak to it. One other way Poe increased the melancholy effect is the torture of the narrator. The answer the narrator received each time was already predetermined and both the reader and the narrator knew what the reply was going to be; therefore, continuously torturing the narrator.
Poe also used many similes, metaphors, and examples of personification. “Quoth the Raven ‘Nevermore’” (Raven: 48) is an example of personification found in Poe’s poem “The Raven”. Since birds cannot really talk, the raven was given a human characteristic of speech. “And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,” is an example of a metaphor used in “The Raven” by Poe to compare the raven’s eyes to a demon’s; therefore, comparing the raven to a demon. “That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.” (Raven: 56) is an example of a simile that Poe used to compare the raven’s reply to the narrators state of grief.
Poe used many devices to produce the melancholy feeling found in his poem “The Raven” including alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia. The tone of the poem was created using depressing symbols, topics, and themes. Poe followed a very strict rhyme scheme throughout the entire poem. After looking through the poem and carefully examining how much work was put into it to make it so strict, we can conclude that the poem was carefully though through and produced by a literary genius to have pieced it all together so perfectly.
Liked it
this is a great website….yeah!! thanks…but it would be really cool if you named one more metaphor in the example above..thanks
me
Great resource! Made my work so much easier. Everything was here and easy to identify. Thanks!
needs more examples for each 1
needs more examples for each 1
you need to include that the the repetitiveness was for purpose of showing how miserable he was and that the raven was only telling him there was no hope.
Good examples of literary devices, but use of the name, “Poe,” was very overused.
“Your MOM” and i have to get together and produce more brrilant children like you.
lol
good job, but you chould list all of the symbols, metaphores, rhyme and stuff.
I Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv your web site, it helped me a lot
Hi there,
I just wanted to add that “And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,” is a simile marked by the word “seeming”. The Raven’s eyes seem like the eyes of a demon. A metaphor would be “his eyes are that of a demon”.
Hurrah! needed this pour ma classe de l’anglais! merci ^_^
dude ur website is pimpafelic it helped explain it it was was confuzleing
this poem gace me the hiccups!! no lol its okkk i guess, not my type though!!!
its an all right poem but im not a big poem fan i just had to do this for class
Your site rox! ^_^
yay =)
playing for the yankees is much better this boring website
who killed his lover lol
This poem is VERY confusing to me. it took me two times to understand it. why am i reading this?? well my teacher is asking us to reseach this poem and try to understand it. i personally think this poem is strange yet sad, and a little bit emo. i mean what kind of guy talks to ravens and wishes he was a women.
and how it is during the black plague.. that is very emo. i learned about the black plague and i was a horrible and sad desiese. Well that is what i think of this poem by Edgar Allen Poe.
This Poem is confusing?!?!?!
Nice site. It really helped me. remind me to Tell people to tell about it. Teehee
it rocks and im old oh yeah
i love the site its pimptastic it is very sad though that his wife died.
o.k. this poem like really confuzes me but im sure ur reading the analysis’ because ur confuzed 2 so dont judge me. so heres wat i think this poem is a little bit emo im only reading it cause my teacher made me and i think poes depressed because his beloved wife is dyin someone knocks on his door and a raven flies in and he starts talking 2 this raven hello hes obviousky some kind of nutjob then he wishes hes a frekin women i repeat NUTJOB neway yea it kinda depresses me!!!
hi thank you very much, what you wrote about The Raven was useful, however i disagree with you about the rhyme scheme amongst the 18, there are 2 stanzas that could not be described as ABCBBB because stanzas 12 and 13 are different : ABABBB. and the first word But shows that there is a change.
First of all, many of you who are commenting this are completely misunderstanding the poem. To the person who said he wishes he was a woman: where the hell did you get that? He is sad that his lover is passed on, and while trying to forget about her, a Raven visits him. And no, the bird does not turn into a demon; it’s eyes resemble the evil of a demon’s eyes.
Secondly, according to Poe himself (in his Philosophy of Composition) it is IMPERATIVE that you understand that the man KNEW the answers before the bird even said them. He was torturing himself intentionally (this is where emo comes in I guess). Notice that he says, “‘Doubtless,’ said I, ‘what it utters is its only stock and store.’” Directly following this it reveals that the bird’s master had disaster following him everywhere, until his dirges (sad hymns) were consumed with “Never-nevermore”. In short, the bird was taught the word nevermore because he had a very depressed owner.
Some other notes: the narrator is a scholar (according to Poe), thus not being a “nutjob”; he is just insane in the loss of love. He uses many allusions (references to historical pieces of writing), such as nepenthe(ancient drug to induce loss of memory) and balm in Gilead(again, an ancient medicine). When he is saying “Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!” he is wishing he could forget Lenore, but the bird tells him he won’t (nevermore). The next stanza has the narrator inquiring the Raven as to whether there is balm in Gilead (i.e. is there a remedy for his grief), to which the bird again replies no. Finally, the narrator demands him to leave when it tells him the Angels didn’t take his lover to Aidenn (Heaven or Paradise); however, the bird still sits on the bust of Pallas (Greek goddess of Wisdom), and the narrator’s soul is bound to the Raven forever.
I hope this helps those who have a paper to write.
you should write more examples of poetic devises and you should write which line the poetic device was used!! and i still dont know the theme:) but it is a good and helpful site
oh and the funniest thing is that a person in my english class thought that lenor was the speakers mom!!!
Actually, ravens CAN talk. Like parrots… kinda.
thank you soooooo much
now i understand things a lot better and special thanks to anonimous as well. I now understand this poem better 
still, there’s one thing i still dont get…
the persona wishes he was a woman??? seriously, where the hell did u get that??? seriously,WHERE?
very good job. it helped
very good thanks
Thank you this description help me a lot to really understand The Raven.
wow this is real awesome had 2 do a report on this and this really helped thnx!!!!!
WHAT DOES EACH STANZA MEAN….?
HELP I WANT IT LINE BY LINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
well all i have to say is that i didn’t read the peom and im not going to either. becasue it’s way to hard to read! but i have a TESTTO DO LATER ON IN MY LANGUAGE ARTS CLASS! BUT I DONT KNOW HOW I’M GOING TO DO!
this helped so much, thank you for everything!
this helped but i need a website that broke the poem down. stanza by stanza and line by line
If you actually read the poem and pause after each line, it is not that hard to understand. Use a dictionary to look up the words you don’t know. Poe’s mom died in december so this poem could have some refrence to his mom and his missing her since his wife didn’t pass away for a couple years after he wrote “The Raven”. I love Poe’s work and I think his poems are beautiful.
iDK cAUSE i dIDNT rEAD iT
iDK cAUSE i dIDNT rEAD iT
iDK cAUSE i dIDNT rEAD iT
iDK cAUSE i dIDNT rEAD iT
iDK cAUSE i dIDNT rEAD iT
iDK cAUSE i dIDNT rEAD iT
iDK cAUSE i dIDNT rEAD iT
iDK cAUSE i dIDNT rEAD iT
iDK cAUSE i dIDNT rEAD iT
Whaz good dis ya boy skillz and i was bored so i wrote this lololololololololololololololol. Get at me errybody. #2 ALL DAY
You have a typo in the last paragraph, sixth line. “..the poem was carefully thought through…”
Thanks for the help……no other website really broke down the repition, figurative language, and other things for me……maybe add some symbol examples…..but amazing other wise….got a speech on this so hope its good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
not very helpful dammit!!
thanks(:
Good job on the metaphors and such, I love Poe’s work , to me he knows how to truly capture true emotion of what a person feels in his work.
Every poem means something different to the person interpreting. Read it again from this perspective. It is not grieve, but guilt as well that send him in this downward spiral. What if his greive of loosing her is complicated by him being the one that killed her. out of jealousy, or rage no matter. He is surprised by the knock at the dooor, scared that it may be her,or a ghost. he even calls out her name expecting her in the hall. The phrase is there any balm in gealid could be a question of her in heven. he asks if he is to be rejoined with her in heven and told no( clasped her hand) in the end his soul gets draged down into the shadow which could be construed as the entrance to hell, the way light is the entrence to heven. Read it from that point a veiw and tell me if you see it that way.
thanks a lot this really helped me since i am in 8th grade with a horrible teacher
when i read this poem what i took from it was fear of darkness and the mostrosities of the night. And Poe would occasionaly look for the comfort of this mysterious girl named Lenore and just be hoping for the next day to come. Dont get me wrong this really helps but what your telling me doesn’t co-exist with what i took from ( or rather than experienced) from the poem. Other than that thank you for the generosity of deciding to help those who apparently like myself did not understand the meaning of The Raven.
i agree with the # 24 he isnt wishing he was a woman he was mourning the loss of his wife. Fearing death and loathing it with all of his heart. When Poe was writing this poem his wife was dying. He is torturing himself and therefore experiencing death in a new form. He was not saying that a demon in the form of a raven was visiting him. The raven simbolized death his eyes were those of a demon because Poe felt he was looking his wifes death and suffering in the eye. Oe is depressed hince forth the raven, another thing how the hell did any of you take from this him trying to imagine himself a woman dying or a woman in nature. Poe was lost in a world filled with darkness and the unforgiving death that so graciouslly took his wife. Read the poem again people and this time try not to be hypocritical!!!!!!!
I liked itit helped me understand the poem more.
But i wish it went through very stanz….lol oh well
wow. it was a really good. it is really to help me.
This is the word literary analysis I have come across regarding Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven”. Not only do you mix up the examples for the poetic devices you are trying to demonstrate, but also you twist the definitions of certain devices to comply with your paper. You need to provide ample textual support in order to make an argument, which you also fail to do. Furthermore, learn to cite quotations properly. You should be using standard MLA format. I am puzzled as to what in text format you used seeing as you should use something along the lines of ” (Line 1-5)”. Awful. Better luck next time. I hope you did not hand this in. If you did and passed, your teacher is clearly poorly educated, as you.
#51 was awfully harsh. I understand your disagreement, but couldn’t you have stated that simply as “A disappointment”. It was also cruel to end it with “Awful”. While that might be your opinion, you certainly didn’t have to insult the author’s intelligence; I’d say you were just as poorly educated in courtesy as the author was on this selection.
Better luck next time!
Indeed
He is crazyYYYYYY, because i have to do a w/s about him and i cant do it because i DONT UNDERSTAND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I REALLY LIKED IT, IT WAS WELL WORDED ORGANIZED AND ITS REASONING WAS LOGICAL BUT IT WOULD HELP IF THERE WERE ACTUALLY EXAMPLES OFT EH SIMILES AND METAPHORS USED.
thanks for this it really helped me
hi, in my own point of you, i think that the speaker here doesn’t face a real bird, but it is established and built in his imagination, here i think that the speaker was only dreaming no more. i can support my idea by when he can’t make the raven leave, when somebody is dreaming the only thing he can do is to invite what he was dreaming about, but after that he has no power to mak it leave, unless to wake up. and here the raven represents his beloved “lenore”, that she is always in his mind negatively, that means also that he comitted something wrong against her when she was in life. he may wasn’t such a good husband for her, or he was punishing her, or my be he did miss something to do for her when she asked him to do it. so in his poem he tries to comfort himself because it is to heavy to bear it, and he feels regreat to, also anything in his chamber remembers him his lost lenore.
i hope that my idea can help you,
thank you i loved it it helped so much person:):)
Thanks for helping but that is the worst and only poem ive ever read
if you cite within the text, you don’t need to mention again and again that the line is from “The Raven.”
for example:
“Quoth the Raven ‘Nevermore’” (Raven: 48) is an example of personification found in Poe’s poem “The Raven.”
End the sentence after personification.
That should come from the redundancy department of redundancy, as we journalists say. But besides a few spelling mistakes and sentence structure problems, this is a useful source. Brief, but useful.
you all suck
i hate this poem so much