Summary for the Poem Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

 

The Raven

            The Raven is a narrative poem written by Edgar Allan Poe an American poet. This poem was published in the year 1845. In this poem the poet laments the death of his lover, Lenore. The Raven in this poem perches on the Bust of Pallas and utter the word “Nevermore”.

A talking raven taps the window of the mourning narrator during a mysterious midnight visit in Bleak December. The narrator is a young scholar and is frightened by the tapping sound at the door at night. He opens the door at night. He opens the door and finds no one there. Then the poets heart beat raises rapidly. He realizes the sound coming from his window. He opens the shutter and finds a raven perching on his statue of the Bust of Pallas. This symbolizes that the narrator is a scholar because Pallas Athena is the goddess of wisdom.

The narrator asks the raven for its name and to his surprise and delight the bird answers “Nevermore”. He moves near to the bird. He feels that the bird is sent by God to distract him from his sadness. The bird answers “Nevermore”. The narrator feels tired and turns fatigue. Even though the narrator is aware about the raven’s response will be “Nevermore”, he torments himself by asking raven “will he be reunited with Lenore in heaven”. The raven pronounces “Never more”. The narrator begs the raven to leave him alone and the raven replied “Never more”.

The poem Raven is considered as one of the masterpieces of Poe’s poem. This poem represents a very painful condition of mind. This poem is proved to be one of a captivating poem of Poe.