Please analyze the poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is a poem about a man who
has lost his love, Lenore.

The mood is set with the time
("a midnight dreary") and the author's physical condition ("weak and weary"). It is
December, the fire is full of dying embers—and even those bring to
mind the supernatural:

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And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost
upon the floor.

The speaker
sits alone reading old books ("forgotten lore"), nodding off; the sound of the rustling
curtains fills him with terror, which adds to the mood of the story. When there is a
knock at the door, the speaker tries to convince himself that even though he is
frightened, the knocking is nothing more than "some late
visitor."

Mustering his courage, the speaker rises and
opens the door; he sees nothing, but hears his whisper "Lenore" that is echoed back at
him. He comes in, closes the door, but again there is a knocking. The speaker tries to
calm himself, thinking something may be tapping on the window—surely only the wind. He
opens the shutter and a raven enters, walking like a "lord," where
it…

Perched
upon a bust of Pallas, just above my chamber
door.

The man addresses the
bird, "Ghastly grim and ancient raven," and asks him why he has come. The man makes no
special note that he speaks to the bird, but he does express
surprised that the bird can talk—only one word: the famous and daunting, "Nevermore."
The man personifies the bird's speech...

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...as if his soul in that one word he did
outpour.

When the bird will
not say more, the man reflects that the bird will leave soon enough as all of his
friends have. The bird repeats "Nevermore." The man thinks then that maybe the bird was
only ever taught one word by "some unhappy master." Finally, smiling, the man turns his
chair to face the bird, wondering what "Nevermore" means. For a moment, the man looks at
a velvet cushion, knowing she will never sit there again, and
suddenly he feels a presence in the room. He cries to heaven that he might forget
Lenore, but "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'" The man becomes frenzied. He asks the bird,
"is there balm in Gilead," which is a quote from the book of Jeremiah: he asks is there
no healing for his broken heart? The bird's answer does not
change.

The man then asks the bird, who he addresses as
"Prophet," if he shall ever again see Lenore:

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Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the
distant Aidenn,

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the
angels name Lenore ...

Again,
the bird offers no hope, repeating the same answer. Angry the man demands that the bird
leave him to his sorrow. The bird's response remains unchanged, and in the last stanza
the man reports that the bird is still sitting in the same spot. He
acknowledges:

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

Shall be lifted -
nevermore!

Poe's gift with
poetry is often overshadowed by his tales of horror. As we read the poem, we are struck
with Poe's surprising ability to write excellent poetry, using a variety of literary
devices, while presenting a dark tale (his calling card) with hints at "other worldly
powers." Here are some of the literary devices Poe
uses:

• internal rhyme: While I nodded, nearly
  napping, suddenly there came a
  tapping,

• onomatopoeia:
  rapping, tapping


• rhyme
  scheme: ABCBBB


• consonance: what
  it utters is
  its only stock and
  store


• assonance: yet
  was
  blest


• alliteration: grim,
  ungainly, ghastly,
  gaunt


• repetition:
  Nevermore.


• personification: the raven, sitting
  lonely