Poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe: summary, analysis and meaning
The Raven is a narrative poem by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, the highest representative of fantastic literature. First published in 1845, the poem extraordinarily combines the symbolic universe of the mysterious and strange with a great rhythmic and musical sense of poetic language.
The poem The cave part of a common literary topic: the death of the beloved woman. With this topic as a reference, the fundamental question seems to revolve around death as an inexorable destiny, its acceptance.
Summary of the poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Sitting in his study during a mysterious night, a man heartbroken over the death of his beloved, Eleanor, has found refuge in reading. A series of signals warn you of a presence. After several futile checks, he opens his window for the last time. Sneakily, a raven enters the room and perches on the bust on the lintel of the door. Faced with the strange event, the man, brooding and without waiting for an answer, asks his name. The raven responds: "never."
The answer dislodges the subject, who makes all kinds of speculations to explain the fantastic episode. Is it that he just repeats what he learned from an old master or is he a mysterious prophet? Longing for comforting news about her lover, he asks her: will he be able to see her again, even if she is in the world of the dead? The answer is tirelessly the same: "never." Desperate, the man tries to get rid of the raven, but it has settled forever on the lintel of the door to remind him of his inexorable fate.
Analysis of the poem The Raven by Poe
Edgar Allan Poe's poem refers us to the subject's stormy anguish in the face of inexorable death. Given this, we ask ourselves: in what way does Poe manage to represent these ideas? What is the structure of the work? In what literary style is it framed? What interpretation can we give it?
Formal structure
From the formal point of view, the poem The Raven (The raven) is structured in eighteen stanzas. These, in turn, are formed by six trochaic octometric verses or eight punches. In English literature, a troqueo is a foot composed of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, in order to give the poem rhythm and musicality.
Better than understanding this conceptually, is to briefly listen to a fragment and feel the rhythm in the following video:
The punches fulfill a function in this text: they accentuate the progressively distressing and despairing atmosphere that makes us perceive the state of the poetic subject through rhythm.
Along with this, the rhyme of the poem in English is constructed as follows: ABCBBB. Eventually, it turns to the AA, B, CC, CB, B, B form. With these resources of rhythm and intonation, Poe manages to build one of the most acclaimed poetic texts in history because of its musicality.
The Raven and fantastic literature
The Raven it responds to the aesthetics of fantastic literature. In the book Introduction to fantasy literature, Tzvetan Todorov affirms that "What is fantastic is the hesitation experienced by a being who only knows natural laws, in the face of an apparently supernatural event."
Something similar happens in the poem The Raven. Within a conventional scene, such as that of a grieving man reading in his study, a talking raven enters. Instead of reacting in terror, the man's reaction is ambivalent, or at least the flow of his thought is. The man wonders: will he be a trained crow or will he be a messenger from beyond?
This doubt, this ambivalence between the rational and the strange is a characteristic feature of fantasy literature. This feature is accentuated by a fundamental fact: the narrative does not resolve the ambivalence in the reader, but leaves it open.
The reader can ask the same questions as the lyrical subject. You might also wonder if the scene was nothing more than the fruit of the narrator character's imagination. However, no explanation matters. Be it one way or the other, a desperate man lies oppressed by the inexorable fate of loneliness, madness, and death.
Characteristics of the narrator character
We must also consider the youth of the suffering character and his student status. The author wants to portray the intensity of a young and passionate love, as is typical in those ages. This contrast reinforces the idea of death as a cruel destroyer of dreams, as an unbeatable force that ironically frustrates any human conviction, however intense it may be.
The studious character of the character not only allows to highlight the contrast between rationality and madness. It also allows you to put in your mouth the symbolic references to interpret the text that, otherwise, would have to have been introduced by an omniscient narrator.
The night as a space of anguish
We can build the meaning or sense of the poem The Raven from an analysis of his symbolic universe. Part of the greatness of this poem lies in the network of symbols that the writer weaves. Through them and their relationships, Edgar Allan Poe manages to build an atmosphere full of tension, mystery and ambivalence.
We speak in particular of the raven, the bust of Pallas Athena and the door. Other elements of symbolic value are also present: the winter night in December, the darkness, the colors, the unexpected noises.
The scene takes place at night, in a nocturnal atmosphere that we associate with silence, stillness and rest, but also with mystery and the revelation of the inner world. With this atmosphere the writer announces a state of mind to us, marked by the uneasiness of a grieving lover. The night is the place of fears and delirium, of the anguish of the insomniac.
The order of things
In the physical space described, the door and the white bust of Pallas Athena that crowns his lintel stand out. The bust could be on a table or a dresser, but the writer has decided to place it on the door.
From a symbolic point of view, doors They represent the transition processes, the passage from one state to the other, regardless of whether it is a higher or lower state.
Pallas Athena she is one of the main goddesses of the Greek pantheon. She is the symbol of wisdom and, therefore, is associated with reason. She is also the goddess of war. Her presence is not accidental. From the door, the goddess of reason and wisdom rules the room and controls the "transition" to another universe, to another state.
A stranger threatens order
The hierarchy changes when the narrator character opens the window to the outside world (the mysterious night), gives way to the raven and decides to start a “conversation” with him. What is a raven coming for? Why has the writer chosen this bird and not an owl, for example?
The Raven It is a bird with black plumage that eats worms, insects, seeds and carrion. He is also known for being intelligent and for almost always walking in a group. By eating scavengers, crows are considered as mediators between life and death. Their black color is related to impurity and, especially when they appear alone, they are considered carriers of a bad omen.
The battle between reason to madness
Internally, the narrator is divided between the need to forget Leonor and the unwillingness to do so. When seeing the raven, the narrator character remembers the meaning of him as a messenger from the “plutonic region”, that is, a messenger from Hades, from the underworld of the dead. The strange presence of this unexpected talking down jacket unleashes his inner torment.
The bird is planted on the bust of Pallas Athena. The first image that it transmits to us is sensory: the black color of the bird contrasts with the white bust. The darkness tries to impose itself on the light.
The battle begins, a battle that is actually fought within the character: it is a battle between reason and madness, between wisdom and the dark or mysterious world, between light and darkness, between life and death.
"Never": effective word and final sentence
When the raven lands on Athena, a new domain has been established in the narrator character's small universe. Over reason, the frightening, the bad omen, the lonely being, the being that obsessively and compulsively repeats “never” or “never again” over and over again has imposed itself.
The lover cannot get the raven out of the room, but he has not withdrawn from it either. He has not accepted Pallas Athena's invitation. By staying, however, he has made another transit. He has accepted the design of the messenger of hell. Totally dominated by the new guardian of the door, the character succumbs to the power of his mystery, to the efficacy of his condemning word: "never."
The english word nevermore, which means "never" or "never again" (depending on the translation) condenses the final meaning of the text. They are expressions that represent the denial of all hope. They are repeated insistently by the raven, unable to say anything else. Can not? Does not want? It does not matter. What matters is that the word is there, carrying all its colossal weight, its nullifying weight.
Meaning of the poem The Raven
The word Never Declared with such insistence, it not only denies a possible reunion between the soul of Leonor and that of the narrator character. It also denies any hope for his life. There is no consolation. No alternative. There is no "reason" that can overcome despair when the soul succumbs to terror, when the mind travels the roads of anguish. It is the path that leads to madness.
The raven's repetitive answer to every question, every question, is the worst of all answers. It is the one that says nothing, that nothing solves. Could it be the ritornello Of a man who gives way to his madness? Could it be a true omen of eternal loneliness? We only know that the lover has been lost in the abyss of pain.
Poe lets us feel the dramatic weight of death on the human will. There is no youth or love that are worth when death, imposing, dictates its sentence. The raven reminds us of the inexorable path that unleashes our most distressing musings: death, which is nothing more than the path of oblivion.
Famous Versions of the Poem The Raven
From its first appearance, The Raven it became one of the most influential poetic works of the modern era, which is why numerous versions have been made. Among some of the most famous, we can mention:
- Movie The Raven 1935, directed by Lew Landers and starring Béla Lugosi and Boris Karloff.
- Movie The Raven 1963, from director Roger Corman. It featured actors Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson.
- Parody of the poem The Raven, in The Simpson.
This parody of The Simpson, which has gained great popularity, deserves a little comment. The parody was part of the third episode of the second season, broadcast in 1990 as part of the famous Halloween special, "La casita del horror". The story is introduced by Lisa, who reads the opening lines of the poem to her siblings. The grieving lover is played by Homer Simpson, Eleanor is played by Marge, and on a hilarious note, the raven is played by Bart.
Poem The Raven (*)
I
On a terrifying night, restless
I was rereading an old mammoth
when i thought i heard
a strange noise all of a sudden
as if someone was gently touching
at my door: «Impertinent visit
it is, I said and nothing more ».II
Ah! I remember very well; it was in winter
and impatiently he measured the eternal time
tired of searching
in the books the benevolent calm
to the pain of my dead Leonora
who lives with the angels now
for ever and ever!III
I felt the sedentary and crunchy and stretchy
rubbing of the curtains, a fantastic
terror like never
I felt there was and I wanted that noise
explaining, my oppressed spirit
finally calm down: «A lost traveler
it is, I said and nothing more ».IV
Already feeling calmer: «Gentleman
I exclaimed, or lady, I beg you I want
please excuse
but my attention was not wide awake
and your call was so uncertain... »
Then I opened the door wide:
darkness nothing more.V
I look into space, I explore the darkness
and I feel then that my mind populates
mob of ideas which
no other mortal had them before
and I listen with longing ears
«Leonora» whispering voices
murmur nothing more.SAW
I return to my stay with secret dread
and to listen to pale and restless around
stronger hit;
"Something, I tell myself, knock on my window,
understand I want the arcane sign
and calm this superhuman anguish »:
The wind and nothing else!VII
And the window I opened: wallowing
I then saw a crow worshiping
like a bird of another age;
without further ceremony he entered my rooms
with a stately gesture and black wings
and on a bust, on the lintel, of Palas
posed and nothing else.VIII
I look at the black bird, smiling
before its grave and serious continent
and I start to talk to him,
not without a hint of ironic intention:
Oh raven, oh venerable anachronistic bird,
What is your name in the plutonic region? "
The raven said: "Never."IX
In this case the grotesque and rare pair
I was amazed to hear so clearly
such a name to pronounce
and I must confess that I was scared
Well, before nobody, I think, had the pleasure
of a crow see, perched on a bust
with such a name: «Never».X
What if he had poured in that accent
the soul, the bird fell silent and not a moment
the feathers moved already,
«Others of me have fled and it reaches me
that he will leave tomorrow without delay
how hope has abandoned me ";
said the raven: "Never!"XI
An answer when listening so clear
I told myself, not without secret concern,
This is nothing more.
How much did he learn from an unfortunate master,
whom fate has persecuted tenaciously
and for just a chorus he has preserved
That never, never! "XII
I rolled my seat to the front
of the door, of the bust and of the seer
crow and then already
reclining in the soft silk
I was sinking in fantastic dreams,
always thinking what to say I would like
that never, never.XIII
I stayed like this for a long time
that strange ominous bird
looking incessantly,
I sat on the velvet couch
we sit together and in my duel
I thought that Ella, never on this ground
it would occupy it more.XIV
Then the thick air seemed to me
with the aroma of burning incense
of an invisible altar;
and I hear voices fervently repeating:
«Forget Leonor, drink the nepenthes
oblivion drinks from its lethal fountains »;
said the raven: "Never!"XV
"Prophet, I said, augur of other ages
that the black storms threw
here for my bad,
guest of this abode of sadness,
Say, dark spawn of the dark night,
if there will be a balm to my bitterness at last »:
said the raven: "Never!"XVI
«Prophet, I said, or devil, infamous crow
for God, for me, for my bitter pain,
by your fatal power
tell me if ever Leonora
I will see again in the eternal dawn
where happy with the cherubs dwells »;
said the raven: "Never!"XVII
«Let such a word be the last
returns to the plutonic riverbank, »
he yelled: «Don't come back again,
do not leave a trace, not a feather
and my spirit wrapped in dense mist
finally release the weight that overwhelms you! »
said the raven: "Never!"XVIII
And the still, funereal and grim raven
always follow Pallas on the bust
and under my lantern,
casts dingy stain on the carpet
and his demon gaze amazes ...
Oh! Does my soul mourn from its shadow
will it get rid? Never!(*) Translation of Carlos Arturo Torres
The raven (text in English)
I
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’ Tis some visitor, ”I muttered,“ tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more. "II
"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; —vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.III
"And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
"’ Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is and nothing more. "IV
"Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you ”—here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there and nothing more.V
"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!” -
Merely this and nothing more.SAW
"Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
“Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore—
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
’Tis the wind and nothing more!"VII
"Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door—
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.VIII
"Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore! "
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."IX
"Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning — little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door—
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore."X
"But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if her soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing farther then he uttered — not a feather then he fluttered—
Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before—
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before. "
Then the bird said "Nevermore."XI
"Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs by him one burden bore—
Till the dirges of his Hope of him that melancholy burden bore
Of ‘Never — nevermore’. "XII
"But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore—
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."XIII
"This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o’er,
But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o’er,
She she shall press, ah, nevermore!XIV
"Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee — by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite — respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore;
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore! "
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."XV
"Prophet!" said I, “thing of evil! —prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—
On this home by Horror haunted — tell me truly, I implore—
Is there — is there balm in Gilead? —Tell me — tell me, I implore! "
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."XVI
"Prophet!" said I, “thing of evil! —prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us — by that God we both adore—
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore. "
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."XVII
"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting—
“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! —Quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door! "
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."XVIII
"And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes de él have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted — nevermore! "
