The first stanza of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven", dispalays a man who is in the stage which lies between sleep and consciousness. This man is lamenting the loss of his love and since he is barely awake he begins to hallucinate, or dream while he is not sleeping. The man's hallucinations cause him to believe he hears a knock at his bedroom door. As the reader reaches the second stanza he/she is made aware that Lenore is the name of the speaker's lost love and that she had died in December. As the poem progresses the speaker doubts that this late night knocking at his door may is only a late night visitor, but possibly the ghost of Lenore; however, the speaker reasures himself that the knocking is some visitor. By the time we reach the third stanza the reader witnesses the speaker calling out to what the speaker hopes is just a visitor, but upon opening his chamber door, the man sees nothing but the darkness of the night. Thus, the speaker becomes convinced that the ghost of Lenore is haunting him, so he whispers her name. The sixth stanza of "The Raven" shows that the speaker has closed his door and once again hears the same tapping and consequentally believes it is coming from his bedroom window. The speaker than disregards the sound claiming that it is the wind and noithing more. Eventually, the speaker decides to open his window for reasurance that the wind is causing the tapping. Upon opening his window, in flies a raven that perches above the speakers chamber door. By the eighth stanza Edgar Allen Poe personifies the raven by giving it human characteristics stating the raven was smiling and was able to utter the word "nevermore". Also, the speaker in his dreary state begins to converse with the raven. However, all the raven can say is "nevermore". Through the next few stanzas the speaker is wondering why this bird has paid him a visit. So, the speaker continues asking the bird questions but the bird can only say "nevermore". Consequentially the speaker is going insane and then begins to denounce the raven and demanding for it to leave, but the raven only responds by saying "nevermore." By the final stanza the reader becomes aware that the raven was a message to the speaker that he will never see his Lenore again not even in heaven because he is headed for the "Plutonian Shore".

Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" is an ideal example of a gothic poem. Initially the author presents a gloomy atmosphere by setting it in the wee hours of the mysterious night. The poem also presents the degeneration of a man. Since the speaker is driven into insanity he has degenerated from being depressed into a hopeless lunatic. Poe also creates a genuine gothic poem by his incorporation of the raven. By giving the raven human characteristics it ads to the morbid milieu presented within the stanzas of the poem. Thus, through Poe's application of a dreary setting, the degeneration of a man, and a haunting raven, Poe creates the epitome of a gothic piece of literature.