"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe.

First published in January 1845, the poem is often

noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a
distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student,[1][2] is
lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its
constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk and classical references.

Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically, intending to create a poem that would appeal to
both critical and popular tastes, as he explained in his 1846 follow-up essay "The Philosophy of Composition". The poem
was inspired in part by a talking raven in the novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty by Charles Dickens.[3]
Poe borrows the complex rhythm and meter of Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship", and makes use of
internal rhyme as well as alliteration throughout.

"The Raven" was first attributed to Poe in print in the New York Evening Mirror on January 29, 1845. Its publication
made Poe widely popular in his lifetime, although it did not bring him much financial success. Soon reprinted, parodied,
and illustrated, critical opinion is divided as to the poem's status, but it nevertheless remains one of the most famous
poems ever written

Analysis

Poe wrote the poem as a narrative, without intentionally creating an allegory or falling into didacticism.[2] The main
theme of the poem is one of undying devotion.[9] The narrator experiences a perverse conflict between desire to forget
and desire to remember. He seems to get some pleasure from focusing on loss.[10] The narrator assumes that the word
"Nevermore" is the raven's "only stock and store", and, yet, he continues to ask it questions, knowing what the answer
will be. His questions, then, are purposely self-deprecating and further incite his feelings of loss.[11] Poe leaves it
unclear if the raven actually knows what it is saying or if it really intends to cause a reaction in the poem's narrator.[12]
The narrator begins as "weak and weary," becomes regretful and grief-stricken, before passing into a frenzy and, finally,
madness.[13] Christopher F. S. Maligec suggests the poem is a type of elegiac paraclausithyron, an ancient Greek and
Roman poetic form consisting of the lament of an excluded, locked-out lover at the sealed door of his beloved.

Allusions

Poe says that the narrator is a young scholar.[15] Though this is not explicitly stated in the poem, it is mentioned in "The
Philosophy of Composition". It is also suggested by the narrator reading books of "lore" as well as by the bust of Pallas
Athena, goddess of wisdom.[1]

He is reading "many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore".[6] Similar to the studies suggested in Poe's short
story "Ligeia", this lore may be about the occult or black magic. This is also emphasized in the author's choice to set the
poem in December, a month which is traditionally associated with the forces of darkness. The use of the raven – the
"devil bird" – also suggests this.[16] This devil image is emphasized by the narrator's belief that the raven is "from the
Night's Plutonian shore", or a messenger from the afterlife, referring to Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld[10]
(also known as Dis Pater in Roman mythology).

Poe chose a raven as the central symbol in the story because he wanted a "non-reasoning" creature capable of speech.
He decided on a raven, which he considered "equally capable of speech" as a parrot, because it matched the intended
tone of the poem.[17] Poe said the raven is meant to symbolize "Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance".[18] He
was also inspired by Grip, the raven in Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty by Charles Dickens.[19] One scene in
particular bears a resemblance to "The Raven": at the end of the fifth chapter of Dickens's novel, Grip makes a noise and
someone says, "What was that – him tapping at the door?" The response is, "'Tis someone knocking softly at the
shutter."[20] Dickens's raven could speak many words and had many comic turns, including the popping of a champagne
cork, but Poe emphasized the bird's more dramatic qualities. Poe had written a review of Barnaby Rudge for Graham's
Magazine saying, among other things, that the raven should have served a more symbolic, prophetic purpose.[20] The
similarity did not go unnoticed: James Russell Lowell in his A Fable for Critics wrote the verse, "Here comes Poe with his
raven, like Barnaby Rudge / Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge."[21]

Poe may also have been drawing upon various references to ravens in mythology and folklore. In Norse mythology, Odin
possessed two ravens named Huginn and Muninn, representing thought and memory.[22] According to Hebrew folklore,
Noah sends a white raven to check conditions while on the ark.[17] It learns that the floodwaters are beginning to
dissipate, but it does not immediately return with the news. It is punished by being turned black and being forced to
feed on carrion forever.[22] In Ovid's Metamorphoses, a raven also begins as white before Apollo punishes it by turning
it black for delivering a message of a lover's unfaithfulness. The raven's role as a messenger in Poe's poem may draw
from those stories.[22]

Poe also mentions the Balm of Gilead, a reference to the Book of Jeremiah (8:22) in the Bible: "Is there no balm in
Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?"[23] In that
context, the Balm of Gilead is a resin used for medicinal purposes (suggesting, perhaps, that the narrator needs to be
healed after the loss of Lenore). He also refers to "Aidenn", another word for the Garden of Eden, though Poe uses it to
ask if Lenore has been accepted into Heaven. At another point, the narrator imagines that Seraphim (a type of angel)
have entered the room. The narrator thinks they are trying to take his memories of Lenore away from him using
nepenthe, a drug mentioned in Homer's Odyssey to induce forgetfulness.

Publication history

Poe first brought "The Raven" to his friend and former employer George Rex Graham of Graham's Magazine in
Philadelphia. Graham declined the poem, which may not have been in its final version, though he gave Poe $15 as
charity.[29] Poe then sold the poem to The American Review, which paid him $9 for it,[30] and printed "The Raven" in its
February 1845 issue under the pseudonym "Quarles", a reference to the English poet Francis Quarles.

Main article: The Philosophy of Composition

Poe capitalized on the success of "The Raven" by following it up with his essay "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846),
in which he detailed the poem's creation. His description of its writing is probably exaggerated, though the essay serves
as an important overview of Poe's literary theory.[43] He explains that every component of the poem is based on logic:
the raven enters the chamber to avoid a storm (the "midnight dreary" in the "bleak December"), and its perch on a pallid
white bust was to create visual contrast against the dark black bird. No aspect of the poem was an accident, he claims,
but is based on total control by the author.[44] Even the term "Nevermore", he says, is used because of the effect
created by the long vowel sounds (though Poe may have been inspired to use the word by the works of Lord Byron or
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow[45]). Poe had experimented with the long o sound throughout many other poems: "no
more" in "Silence", "evermore" in "The Conqueror Worm".[1] The topic itself, Poe says, was chosen because "the
death... of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world." Told from "the lips ... of a
bereaved lover" is best suited to achieve the desired effect.[2] Beyond the poetics of it, the lost Lenore may have been
inspired by events in Poe's own life as well, either to the early loss of his mother, Eliza Poe, or the long illness endured by
his wife, Virginia.[10] Ultimately, Poe considered "The Raven" an experiment to "suit at once the popular and critical
taste", accessible to both the mainstream and high literary worlds.[2] It is unknown how long Poe worked on "The
Raven"; speculation ranges from a single day to ten years. Poe recited a poem believed to be an early version with an
alternate ending of "The Raven" in 1843 in Saratoga, New York.[3] An early draft may have featured an owl.

Critical reception
In part due to its dual printing, "The Raven" made Edgar Allan Poe a household name almost immediately,[47] and
turned Poe into a national celebrity.[48] Readers began to identify poem with poet, earning Poe the nickname "The
Raven".[49] The poem was soon widely reprinted, imitated, and parodied.[47] Though it made Poe popular in his day, it
did not bring him significant financial success.[50] As he later lamented, "I have made no money. I am as poor now as
ever I was in my life – except in hope, which is by no means bankable".[35]

The New World said, "Everyone reads the Poem and praises it ... justly, we think, for it seems to us full of originality and
power."[4] The Pennsylvania Inquirer reprinted it with the heading "A Beautiful Poem".[4] Elizabeth Barrett wrote to
Poe, "Your 'Raven' has produced a sensation, a fit o' horror, here in England. Some of my friends are taken by the fear of
it and some by the music. I hear of persons haunted by 'Nevermore'."[51] Poe's popularity resulted in invitations to
recite "The Raven" and to lecture – in public and at private social gatherings. At one literary salon, a guest noted, "to
hear [Poe] repeat the Raven ... is an event in one's life."[52] It was recalled by someone who experienced it, "He would
turn down the lamps till the room was almost dark, then standing in the center of the apartment he would recite ... in
the most melodious of voices ... So marvelous was his power as a reader that the auditors would be afraid to draw
breath lest the enchanted spell be broken."[53] Parodies sprung up especially in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia and
included "The Craven" by "Poh!", "The Gazelle", "The Whippoorwill", and "The Turkey".[49] One parody, "The Pole-Cat",
caught the attention of Andrew Johnston, a lawyer who sent it on to Abraham Lincoln. Though Lincoln admitted he had
"several hearty laughs", he had not, at that point read "The Raven".[54] However, Lincoln eventually read and
memorized the poem.[55]

"The Raven" was praised by fellow writers William Gilmore Simms and Margaret Fuller,[56] though it was denounced by
William Butler Yeats, who called it "insincere and vulgar ... its execution a rhythmical trick".[2] Transcendentalist Ralph
Waldo Emerson said, "I see nothing in it."[57] A critic for the Southern Quarterly Review wrote in July 1848 that the
poem was ruined by "a wild and unbridled extravagance" and that minor things like a rapping at the door and a
fluttering curtain would only affect "a child who had been frightened to the verge of idiocy by terrible ghost stories".[58]
An anonymous writer going by the pseudonym "Outis" suggested in the Evening Mirror that "The Raven" was plagiarized
from a poem called "The Bird of the Dream" by an unnamed author. The writer showed 18 similarities between the
poems and was made as a response to Poe's accusations of plagiarism against Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It has been
suggested Outis was really Cornelius Conway Felton, if not Poe himself.[59] After Poe's death, his friend Thomas Holley
Chivers said "The Raven" was plagiarized from one of his poems.[60] In particular, he claimed to have been the
inspiration for the meter of the poem as well as the refrain "nevermore".

resumen

"The Raven" has influenced many modern works, including Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita in 1955, Bernard Malamud's "The
Jewbird" in 1963 and Ray Bradbury's "The Parrot Who Knew Papa" in 1976.[62] The poem is additionally referenced
throughout popular culture in films, television, music, and video games.

El cuervo sigue a un narrador sin nombre, que al principio está sentado leyendo «un raro infolio de olvidados
cronicones», con la intención de olvidar la pérdida de su amada Leonor.5 Un «golpeteo en la puerta de su habitación»5
no revela nada, pero incita al alma a «encenderse».6 Se oye un golpeteo similar, ligeramente más fuerte, esta vez en la
ventana. Cuando el joven va a investigar, un cuervo entra a su habitación. Sin prestar atención al hombre, el cuervo se
posa sobre un busto de Palas. Divertido por el cómicamente serio comportamiento del ave, el hombre le pregunta su
nombre. La única respuesta del cuervo es «nunca más».6 El narrador se muestra sorprendido ante la capacidad del ave
para hablar, si bien no dice otra cosa. Supone que el cuervo aprendió a decir «nunca más» de algún «amo infeliz», y que
es lo único que sabe decir.6 El narrador comenta que su «amigo» el cuervo pronto se irá volando de su vida, así como
«otros amigos se han ido volando antes»6 junto con sus esperanzas. Como contestándole, el cuervo vuelve a decir:
«nunca más».6 El narrador se convence de que esa única palabra, Nevermore, «nunca más», posiblemente adquirida de
un viejo amo con mala suerte, es lo único que puede decir.6

Aun así, el narrador coloca su silla justo enfrente del cuervo, determinado a saber más sobre él. Se queda pensando por
un momento, sin decir nada, pero su mente lo lleva de nuevo a su perdida Leonor. Piensa que el aire se vuelve cada vez
más denso y siente la presencia de ángeles. Confuso por la asociación de los ángeles con el ave, el narrador se pone
furioso, llamando al cuervo «cosa del demonio» y «profeta». Mientras el hombre grita ante el cuervo, este sólo le
responde «nunca más».7 Finalmente, le pregunta al animal si él se encontraría con Leonor en el cielo. Cuando responde
con su típica frase «nunca más», grita y le ordena al cuervo regresar a la «ribera Plutónica»,7 aunque este jamás se
mueve. Presumiblemente en el tiempo de la recitación del poema, el cuervo «aún está sentado»7 sobre el busto de
Palas. La admisión final del narrador es que su alma está atrapada bajo la sombra del cuervo y que será liberada «nunca
más»

Analisis

Poe escribió el poema como una narrativa, sin crear intencionalmente una alegoría o caer en el didactismo.2 El tema
central del poema es la devoción sin fin.8 El narrador experimenta un perverso conflicto entre el deseo de recordar y el
deseo de olvidar. Parece sentir algo de placer en enfocarse en su pérdida.9 El narrador asume que «nunca más» es lo
único que logra retener el ave, y aun así continúa haciéndole preguntas, sabiendo cuál será la respuesta. Sus preguntas,
entonces, son deliberadamente autodespreciativas y lo llevan aún más a ese sentimiento de pérdida.10 Poe no deja en
claro si el cuervo en realidad entiende lo que dice o si su intención es crear una reacción en el narrador del poema.11 El
narrador comienza débil y cansado, se torna desconsolado y arrepentido antes de pasar a la histeria y, al final, a la
locura.12 Christopher F. S. Maligec sugiere que el poema es un tipo de paraclausithyron elegiaco, una forma poética
desarrollada por los grecorromanos que consiste en el lamento de un poeta frente a la puerta cerrada de su amada.

The theme is a person who dwells on grief is the cause of his own mental anguish.

The speaker becomes increasingly irrational as the poem continues knowing that no matter what he asks the answer is
"nevermore." I've read some other posts, and I have to add this. A theme is the message an author is trying to express
(the lesson learned). Therefore, a theme must be expressed in a complete sentence. Words like "love," "loneliness," and
"madness" are topics -- jumping off points to finding a theme. Next, themes are lessons that can be applied to various
works of literature and real life. A theme cannot be a character's name. A character can, however, appear in more than
one work. If that happens, then yes, that character can be a signal for a theme.

Analysis:

"The Raven" is the most famous of Poe's poems, notable for its melodic and dramatic qualities. The meter of the poem is
mostly trochaic octameter, with eight stressed-unstressed two-syllable feet per lines. Combined with the predominating
ABCBBB end rhyme scheme and the frequent use of internal rhyme, the trochaic octameter and the refrain of "nothing
more" and "nevermore" give the poem a musical lilt when read aloud. Poe also emphasizes the "O" sound in words such
as "Lenore" and "nevermore" in order to underline the melancholy and lonely sound of the poem and to establish the
overall atmosphere. Finally, the repetition of "nevermore" gives a circular sense to the poem and contributes to what
Poe termed the unity of effect, where each word and line adds to the larger meaning of the poem.

The unnamed narrator appears in a typically Gothic setting with a lonely apartment, a dying fire, and a "bleak
December" night while wearily studying his books in an attempt to distract himself from his troubles. He thinks
occasionally of Lenore but is generally able to control his emotions, although the effort required to do so tires him and
makes his words equally slow and outwardly pacified. However, over the course of the narrative, the protagonist
becomes more and more agitated both in mind and in action, a progression that he demonstrates through his
rationalizations and eventually through his increasingly exclamation-ridden monologue. In every stanza near the end,
however, his exclamations are punctuated by the calm desolation of the sentence "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore,'"
reflecting the despair of his soul.

Like a number of Poe's poems such as "Ulalume" and "Annabel Lee," "The Raven" refers to an agonized protagonist's
memories of a deceased woman. Through poetry, Lenore's premature death is implicitly made aesthetic, and the
narrator is unable to free himself of his reliance upon her memory. He asks the raven if there is "balm in Gilead" and
therefore spiritual salvation, or if Lenore truly exists in the afterlife, but the raven confirms his worst suspicions by
rejecting his supplications. The fear of death or of oblivion informs much of Poe's writing, and "The Raven" is one of his
bleakest publications because it provides such a definitively negative answer. By contrast, when Poe uses the name
Lenore in a similar situation in the poem "Lenore," the protagonist Guy de Vere concludes that he need not cry in his
mourning because he is confident that he will meet Lenore in heaven.

Poe's choice of a raven as the bearer of ill news is appropriate for a number of reasons. Originally, Poe sought only a
dumb beast that was capable of producing human-like sounds without understanding the words' meaning, and he
claimed that earlier conceptions of "The Raven" included the use of a parrot. In this sense, the raven is important
because it allows the narrator to be both the deliverer and interpreter of the sinister message, without the existence of
a blatantly supernatural intervention. At the same time, the raven's black feather have traditionally been considered a
magical sign of ill omen, and Poe may also be referring to Norse mythology, where the god Odin had two ravens named
Hugin and Munin, which respectively meant "thought" and "memory." The narrator is a student and thus follows Hugin,
but Munin continually interrupts his thoughts and in this case takes a physical form by landing on the bust of Pallas,
which alludes to Athena, the Greek goddess of learning.

Due to the late hour of the poem's setting and to the narrator's mental turmoil, the poem calls the narrator's reliability
into question. At first the narrator attempts to give his experiences a rational explanation, but by the end of the poem,
he has ceased to give the raven any interpretation beyond that which he invents in his own head. The raven thus serves
as a fragment of his soul and as the animal equivalent of Psyche in the poem "Ulalume." Each figure represents its
respective character's subconscious that instinctively understands his need to obsess and to mourn. As in "Ulalume," the
protagonist is unable to avoid the recollection of his beloved, but whereas Psyche of "Ulalume" sought to prevent the
unearthing of painful memories, the raven actively stimulates his thoughts of Lenore, and he effectively causes his own
fate through the medium of a non-sentient animal.

The poem has similarities to the raven in the Charles Dickens 'Barnaby Rudge' where a raven, Grip, could also speak and
in the novel Grip taps at a shutter too. Throughtout the poem we can see the depression that Poe is facing because of
the loss of his love, Lenore, and the dark melancholy side of the poem is emphasised by the darkness of the December
night and the choice of a Raven as the bird who visits him.

The poem is about Poe's encounter with a raven on a December night when he is nodding off to sleep while reading a
book of poems. While the dying embers in the fireplace cast their shadows upon the floor, Poe is reading so that he can
forget his sorrow at losing Lenore, whom he describes as 'the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore'.
He hears a tapping at his bedroom door and dismisses it as 'some visitor tapping at my chamber door, only this and
nothing more'

you should consider that the raven is not a literal raven, but a symbol of the man's own depressed psyche