Analysis of The Raven

The poem is pretty easy to understand literally. It starts off with a man sitting by himself on a lonely night, reading a story and trying to forget his sadness over his lost wife, Lenore. Soon he hears a rustling in his curtains and convinces himself that it's just a visitor at his door. So he went to check the door and realized that there was nobody there. So he just stood there by the open door for awhile whispering his wife's name and hearing it echoed back to him. Then he went back inside and soon he heard a tapping. He convinced himself it was just the wind hitting the window. Then he opened the shutter and in flew a raven and sat on a statue in his room. He started talking to the raven and it said "Nevermore." Then he was confused because the word made no sense in the context of the conversation but he also doubted that this could be the bird's name. Yet the bird continued to repeat that single word over and over. So he sat and pondered why the bird would possibly be saying this word over and over and while doing so also thought about his lost love. Then the air began to feel thicker in the air and so he thought the bird must have been sent by God or a devil of some kind and he shouted all kinds of accusations at it but it still just said nevermore again and again. He then asked the bird, believing it was a prophet, if he would ever again be able to hold his love, and yet again the bird said nevermore, so he became very angry and told the bird to leave but it just sat on its perch.

There is a set rhyme scheme used that is something like A, B, C, B, B, B. I don't know if it is considered a poetic device but he also uses a lot of repetition in the way the raven is speaking to convey an ominous sort of feeling. There is also an allusion to the time period because he is sitting there reading a book that was actually written during Poe's time period. So in a sense he was adding publicity to whoever wrote the book.

The figurative meaning, I believe, is that the raven is the depression in his life that he can't quite let go of. It is sitting there in the corner of his room watching him all the time, no matter what he tried to do to stop it. When he reasoned with it, when he spoke to it kindly, when he screamed at it,when he yelled at it, despite anything that he did to it it still hung over his head like something he could never be rid of.