Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most celebrated poets in the history of English literature. His poem, The Raven, is one of the most famous literary works in the world of arts and aesthetics.
The very first line of the poem evokes a melancholy mood as the poet writes, “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary.” (Poe 1) The poem shows the speaker sulking inside a room longing to be with his lover, Lenore. Hearing a knock at the door, he opens it, only to find no one there. When he opens the window of the room, he sees a raven. This desolate man starts conversing to the bird about his agony. It is quite surreal, as the bird answers back saying, “Nevermore.” By the end of the poem, the lonely lover loses his sanity.
The poem has a rhyming scheme of ABCBBB. Poe uses a number of rhyming words in this poem like Lenore, Nevermore, door, floor, more, lore, and so on.
What sets the poem apart from the rest is the thematic content. The poem seems to insinuate about the madness of the speaker. The theme of love reverberates throughout the literary work. It is a portrayal of this lost lover who is lost in the abyss of agony, brooding over his lover. The theme of the natural world and man resonates in the lines. The speaker imagines that there are hostile forces of nature that are looming over the ambiance. He is afraid of these forces. The raven itself is a part of the natural world that intrudes inside his room. Another theme of this poem is that of supernatural beings. The talking bird is a being that makes the avid readers incredulous of the reality of the incident depicted in the poem. The speaker himself ponders if the raven is a prophet or a demon that has come in the form of this bird.
Edgar Allan Poe uses many symbols in The Raven. The bird itself is symbolic. In the beginning, it is described as a “stately” being. The poet pens, “Quoth the Raven, Nevermore” as a refrain. (Poe 48) The final image of the bird is shown to be that of a sleeping demon having burning eyes. The satanic look scares the speaker. Thus, the bird acts as a symbol that keeps on transforming as the poem advances.
Darkness and night are also used by the poet as symbols in this poem. The poet makes one reminiscent of Pluto, the Roman God who rules the underworld. The poet also evokes an allusion to nepenthe, a mythological medicine that eradicates grief from the mind of a man.
Edgar Allan Poe makes use of quintessential literary devices in this poem, and successfully portrays the psyche of the lover. The poem inspires a creative artist to tread on the path of exploration of the deepest emotions of the human mind, and also impresses the avid reader with its literary excellence.
Works Cited
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Raven.
