Name_________________________________________________Date___________________Period________
The Raven Interpretation Worksheet #2
Using the What does that mean tab on the website answer the following questions:
1. In stanza two what does the word ember mean? What clue does it give about where the author is sitting?
2. What does Poe mean when he says “surcease of sorrow” in stanza 2?
3. What is window lattice?
4. What is the meaning of “Let me see what threat is there?”
5. Define stately.
6. What does the author mean when he says “Not the least obeisance made he”?
7. What does “mien of lord or lady” mean when referring to the raven?
8. What is a bust of Pallas?
9. How might you rewrite the following line in everyday English? “Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad
fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore”.
10. Define craven.
11. What does Poe mean when he uses “Night’s Plutonian shore”?
12. Define ungainly
13. Define placid
14. What does Poe refer to when he says “reply so aptly spoken”
15. What does the word “Disaster” refer to in the poem? Why does Poe use it when talking about the raven?
16. Define “Hope” as used with a capital H in the poem.
17. Define melancholy
18. What does “Fancy unto fancy” mean?
19. What does “ominous bird of yore” mean?
20. What does Poe refer to when he says “my bosom’s core”
21. What does “divining” mean as Poe uses it?
22. What does “lamp-light gloated o’er” mean?
23. What does “Then, me thought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer, Swung by
Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor”?
24. What does Poe mean when he asks for a “respite and nepenthe”?
25. What does Poe mean when he says “Prophet!.....Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee
here ashore.”
26. What does Poe mean when he says “is there balm in Gilead?”
27. To what is Poe referring when he asks about Aidenn? What is he asking?
28. Define fiend.
29. What is Poe saying when he says “Leave no black plume” to the bird?
Using the tab “Where is he coming from” answer the following questions:
30. What theories are there about who Lenore was?
31. Explain the ironic jest (joke) in the quote “Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure
no craven,”.
32. Click on “tel me—tell me, I implore!”. Why do some critics claim that the questions asked are so
conveniently answered by the raven? (hint: read the last reason)
33. What are some interpretations of the raven? (Hint: click on “And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting,
still is sitting; On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;”
Answer the following questions using the How did he do that tab:
34. What poetic device is “suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my
chamber door”. How does this device help a poem?
35. What type of setting does Poe set when he says “Ah distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.” How do you think Poe feels before the
Raven arrives? (mood)
36. What poetic device is present in “For the rare and radiant maiden who the angels named Lenore”? Why is
this poetic device used?
37. What poetic device is present in “And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain”? Why do
you think it might be used?
38. What does the use of dashes do to the poem? For example in the line “That I scarce was sure I heard
you”—here I opened wide the door; ---Darkness there and nothing more” why does Poe use dashes?
39. What poetic device is present in the following lines: “And the only word there spoken was the whispered
word, “Lenore?” ; This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”? Why is this poetic
device used?
40. Click on “Surely, said I” and tell me what perspective the poem is told from.
41. Who is the narrator speaking to when he says “Doubtless, said I, what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster followed fast and followed faster…….” What is
it called when a character speaks aloud to himself or herself in a story, play or poem?
42. What poetic device is present in the line “ What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of
yore” and why is this device often used?
43. In the phrase “is there balm in Gilead?” what symbolism could Poe be using? What is symbolism?
44. What is it called when the author places two or more words or ideas side by side? (hint: “And the Raven,
never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting, On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;”)