The narrator begins the poem with a man pondering about his beloved lost Lenore, when he heard a gentle rapping at his door. He remembers distinctly, it was in the month of December when the outside was dark and ghostly with dreary wind. While the inside of his chamber was full of weakness and weariness of the wierd shadows from the dying embers upon the floor. It was as if he was expecting something. He was filled with terrors such as the rustling of the silk curtain, and to calm his heart, he kept repeating that the tapping at his chamber door was some late visitor. He hesitated to open the door, but when he did, there was darkness, and nothing more. He stood there peering into the night, full of wonder, fear, and doubt, imagining things no mortal ever imagined before until the silence was broken by a name whispered of "Lenore". He walked back into his chamber, then heard a louder tapping at his window. He expected only the wind when he opened the window, but to his surprise, a Raven of saintly essence flew uninvited into his chamber and perched itself upon the Pallas above the chamber door. For some strang reason the bird made him smile, then he asked the Raven for a name. The Raven replied "Nevermore". Even though the Raven spoke only that word, he poured out his soul in it. The man thought this was the birds only word in stock, then he tried to guess what this bird meant by the word "Nevermore". He figured the Raven to be a prophet, whether for good or evil. Finally, he asks the Raven whether he would see Lenore once again, and the answer was "Nevermore". So he becomes enraged and tels the Raven to depart and to take thy beak from out of his heart, and still the reply from the Raven was "Nevermore". He realizes there is no hope of clasping the rare and radiant Lenore in Heaven.

Through "The Raven", Edgar Allan Poe is able to itterate aspects of his own morbid life within the stanzas of the poem. Since "The Raven" illustrates a man in sollitude lamenting the loss of his beloved, one who morns in isolation is partaking in an intoxication process to wash away the pain. Edgar Allan Poe, coincidentally possessed a drinking problem and alcoholism can lead to the degeneration of a man. Also, Poe's unfortunate lost romances within his life provided Poe with an overall aspect to base "The Raven" on; how one man's lost love causes intollerable misery which implements deranged insanity. Finally, Poe was a victim of constant criticisms by many literary figures of his time who proclaimed Poe as a self ruined man whose potential will never be achieved due to his many flaws. Consequentially, the reader will find an obvious amount of pessimism contributing to the gloomy atmosphere of "The Raven" as in any gothic literature. Therefore, by itterating how tragic aspects of alcoholism, a broken heart, and lost faith contribute to the shaping of Poe's miserable life, the reader will conceive the aspects within "The Raven" which parallel Edgar Allan Poe's existence. Return