But the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul 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."
--- The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe.
The Raven is a deeply moving, melancholic and mournful piece of poetry that took shape in Edgar Allen Poe’s hands. People who are already acquainted with Poe’s works know that almost all of his writings depict a sense of horror and suspense with an underlying philosophical message. Poe wrote several stories in prose and poetry. I personally think that the abject despair that is depicted in most of his works is because he himself supposedly suffered from bouts of depression. First published in the year 1845, *The Raven* is probably the most famous of Poe’s poems and played an important role in raising his popularity as an American poet at the time.
While writing The Raven, Poe’s goal was to create a poem that appealed to both critics and the masses alike, as explained in his follow up essay called ‘The Philosophy of Composition.’ Unfortunately, at the time there were no copyright laws and though The Raven was printed and reprinted in several magazines of the time, Poe lived in poverty.
Coming to the poem, on a cold December’s night a lonely man, unable to sleep because he craves his lost love Lenore, goes to his chamber and reads ancient lore. One interpretation would be that his lost love Lenore is dead, although the poem never says that she is dead nor does he describe how she was before he ‘lost’ her. The lonely man is the narrator of the poem. As he reads he nods off and is almost napping when he hears a gentle tapping. When he opens the window shutters a stately raven flies in and perches atop a bust statue of the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, Pallas. Then begin a number of rhetorical questions to which the protagonist already knows the answers. For every question addressed to it, the raven only gives one mesmerizing reply. Nevermore.
On a personal note, I have to say that though the same word is repeated through out the poem it never sounds boring or monotonous. Poe uses a vast variety of words all of which rhyme with Nevermore. So actually the reader expects another repetition of Nevermore. Also note that like all of Poe’s works, there is a certain dark overtone, an atmosphere of supernatural occurrings in this poem.
It is to be understood that the narrator desperately wants certain facts to sink into his system, such as the fact that his lost love, Lenore, is never going to return and there is no escape from the pangs of his pain. Either that, or a perverse self-destructing instinct is the reason that he repeatedly asks the raven questions to which he knows the answer WILL BE “Nevermore.” Poe lets us ‘feel’ the pain of the man and his anguish through brilliant words placed appropriately through out the poem. With each passing stanza the reader is subjected to an increased degree of dramatic tension.
Having exhausted all his questions, the narrator says that the fowl still sat on the statue of Pallas, never moving.
*On a personal note:*
As a reader I often wondered if the happenings were real or were imagined by the narrator. Is the chamber real or symbolic? If symbolic, can it be that the chamber is the narrator’s heart and the raven that flew into it is the sorrow of a love lost? It can also be interpreted as the chamber being the narrator’s mind into which a bad thought (the raven) flew in. What are the implications of this interpretation on the narrator’s mental state? I thought that he was caught in the middle of a steady descent into madness after he lost his lover, Lenore.
That apart, there is a lot of symbolism embedded in the poem. For example no birds can speak like human beings, but then why was the raven used and not a different bird? What makes the raven more suited than other species, like say a parrot, which incidentally can be taught to say a few things? Most scholars agree that Poe used the raven because it is widely considered to be an omen of ill. And what better than a bad omen to confirm to the tortured man that his love will never return?
Another symbol is that the raven is perched on the statue of Pallas, the Greek Goddess of wisdom through out the conversation. It means that the raven speaks the phrase ‘Nevermore’ not just because it does not understand the questions and would answer any question with the same answer ‘Nevermore, ’ but because it speaks in wisdom. At least, the narrator believes that the raven is wise and is providing appropriate answers.
Poe’s usage of a cold night in the month of December for the happenings seems to be deliberate. The symbolism here can be two things. One is that of some things coming to an end. I say this because December is the last month of the calendar year, so it symbolizes the end of the year. Another is that of new beginnings. This is because after December is January, the beginning of a new year. Also note that the use of midnight can also be interpreted in the above two ways. The day ends and we enter a brand new day at midnight.
The abject pain and utter desolation that the narrator feels is expressed in his two questions to the raven, one is where he asks if there is ‘nepenthe’ for his memories of Lenore (Nepenthe is a drug used in the olden times to induce forgetfulness in a person), another where he asks if there is a balm in ‘Gilead’ (Gilead is a region of Palestine).
Another important question the readers need to ask themselves is whether the raven is really just that, i.e. a bird or is it some malevolent entity that has come as a bearer of bad news.
There are several ways to interpret the poem and all interpretations seem apt. Today, The Raven remains one of the most difficult to interpret poems in the literary world. This fact alone partially forms its mesmerizing quality and draws the reader.
Do read it if you haven’t already. Please leave a comment or two to let me know what you thought of my interpretations.