The Raven Analysis

In Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven,” he uses setting, imagery, diction, figurative language, sound effects, rhyme, repetition, and rhythm to bring out the mood and overall feeling of the poem. The story itself brings out a gloomy, scary, and haunting feeling to it. It is a late December midnight and the weather is “dreary,” and a man, the narrator (it is first person written) is napping in his chamber, dreaming of his passed away love, Lenore. While napping, he hears a gentle “rapping,” and, thinking it is someone at the door, opens the chamber door only to find nothing. Once again, he hears the rapping sound and goes to the window and opens it; in through the window flies a raven. The man goes through a series of questions about who the raven is, where it is from, and why it taunts him, but it only replies “Nevermore,” driving him insane with its possible meanings.

In “The Raven,” there is internal rhyme in every other line, except for the last line of each stanza, which also rhymes. Poe uses repetition to bring out the reader’s curiosity, repeating words such as “Nothing More” and “Nevermore,” and the line: “’Prophet!’ said I, ‘thing of evil! – prophet still, if bird or devil!’” to show the thoughts of the narrator and what the raven could possibly symbolize. Poe uses words such as: “bleak,” describing December; “rare” and “radiant” describing Lenore’s beauty; “silken,” “sad,” and “darkness” bringing out the gloomy mood; and “stately,” “ghastly,” “grim,” “ancient,” “fiery eyes,” “ungainly,” “gaunt,” and “ominous,” describing the raven; as well as “rapping,” “tapping,” and “rustling” describing the sounds in the poem. All these words bring out the atmosphere, feeling, and image in the reader’s mind of what the man in the story experiences. Poe is a talented writer, who, in his poem “The Raven,” uses the elements of writing to give the audience a feeling of fear and creepiness, and to bring out the basic plot and meaning of the poem: do not dwell on your past, letting it haunt you through the smallest things.