The Raven

The Raven is a poem by Edgar Allan Poe in which the poet explores many issues related
to grief and tragedy in life. The raven repeatedly referred to in the poem is imaginary. The poet
uses the raven symbolically to represent the speaker’s unending grief. When the speaker hears the
knock at the door, he realizes that there is no one opening it. The speaker talks to the bird, and it
is quiet all through with it, saying only one word, “nevermore,” which could be imagined in his
head. The raven is all in the speaker’s head, and just like his hopes of Lenore, it will go away.
The speaker saw the raven in his head because he is going through a hard time due o grief.
The raven is unreal as there is no one at the door. The speaker says, “While I nodded,
nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my
chamber door” (Poe). Upon checking at the door, there was no one. This implies that the knock
is imagined just like the bird. Also, the speaker keeps talking to the raven, which responds only
with one word, “nevermore” (Poe). The speaker wants the raven to tell him whether he will hold
Lenore, his lover, once he gets to heaven, and the bird responds with “nevermore.” The
conversation is a monologue, and the bird’s responses are all imagined in the speaker’s head.
Further, the raven is used symbolically to represent the speaker’s hopes. The bird is a
representation of the speaker’s hopes for Lenore, his lover, whom he knows will never come
back. The bird will fly away just like the speaker’s “hopes have flown before” (Poe).

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Overall, a thorough close reading of the poem shows that the raven does not exist in the
speaker’s real life. The speaker was getting to fall asleep, and this could all be a bad dream. Also,
he was going through a rough season after the recent death of his lover. Thus, the grief made him
imagine many things; the knock at the door and at the window. He also imagined speaking to the
raven. The word “evermore” was also imagined. All this shows that the bird was imaginary,
existing only in the speaker’s head.

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Works Cited
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Raven: Tales and Poems. Penguin, 2013.