Notes on “The Raven”
Background
because he had been napping. However, when he opens the door, he
sees and hears nothing except the word "Lenore," an echo of his own
words.
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"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe.
First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its
musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a
talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's
slow fall into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student,
is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the
raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition
of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk
and classical references.
Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically,
intending to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and
popular tastes, as he explained in his 1846 follow-up essay "The
Philosophy of Composition". The poem was inspired in part by a
talking raven in the novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of
'Eighty by Charles Dickens.[3] Poe borrows the complex rhythm and
meter of Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship", and
makes use of internal rhyme as well as alliteration throughout."The
Raven" was first attributed to Poe in print in the New York Evening
Mirror on January 29, 1845.
The poem was soon reprinted, parodied, and illustrated. Critical
opinion is divided as to the poem's literary status, but it nevertheless
remains one of the most famous poems ever written.
Summary
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The unnamed narrator is wearily perusing an old book one bleak
December night when he hears a tapping at the door to his room. He
tells himself that it is merely a visitor, and he awaits tomorrow because
he cannot find release in his sorrow over the death of Lenore. The
rustling curtains frighten him, but he decides that it must be some late
visitor and, going to the door, he asks for forgiveness from the visitor
Returning to his room, he again hears a tapping and reasons that it was
probably the wind outside his window. When he opens the window,
however, a raven enters and promptly perches "upon a bust of Pallas"
above his door. Its grave appearance amuses the narrator, who asks it
for its names. The raven responds, "Nevermore." He does not
understand the reply, but the raven says nothing else until the narrator
predicts aloud that it will leave him tomorrow like the rest of his
friends. Then the bird again says, "Nevermore."
Allusions in “The Raven”
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"Seraphim," in the fourteenth verse, "perfumed by an unseen
censer / Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled..." is used to
illustrate the swift, invisible way a scent spreads in a room. A
seraphim is one of the six-winged angels standing in the presence
of God.
"Nepenthe," from the same verse, is a potion, used by ancients to
induce forgetfullnes of pain or sorrow.
"Balm in Gilead," from the following verse, is a soothing
ointment made in Gilead, a mountainous region of Palestine east of
the Jordan river.
"Aidenn," from the sixteenth verse, is an Arabic word for Eden or
paradise.
"Plutonian," characteristic of Pluto, the god of the underworld in
Roman mythology.