Literary Analysis of the Raven

742 Words3 Pages
Literary Analysis of The Raven Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) published “The Raven” in 1845 and, to this day, it is a well-known piece of literature with many different meanings. Poe is believed to be one of the greatest writers of all time. With Poetry like “The Raven” it is easy to believe that he is not just one of the world’s greatest writers, but the greatest writer to ever come along. Without the use of the bird this would be a one-dimensional story about a man moping in his chamber. A simple animal was able to tie together the setting of the poem, the emotions of the protagonist, and the overall mood of the situation. When a poem is written in this manner, it is hard not to feel every detail that pours out of the page grabbing the reader by the heart. At the opening of “The Raven,” Poe describes the setting that his character is immersed in. He uses the words, “Once upon a midnight dreary” (1) and “… in the bleak December” (7) to describe the weather outside. While these descriptions cause the reader to be able to imagine the cold, dark, dreary weather, it is the raven that causes the setting to really set itself into the reader’s mind. In the first stanza the reader is introduced to the tapping and rapping that is made by an unknown source, but it is not until the end of the fourth stanza that the protagonist finally opens the door to face what is making the noise. Upon opening the door the protagonist sees only darkness: and Poe writes, “But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token” (27). These sounds, which the reader assumes are made by the raven, helped to set the eerie and ghostly setting of the piece. Without the raven, the mysterious force at play would have never been realized. Throughout the first few stanzas of the poem, the reader is immersed in the weary and saddened emotions of the
Open Document