Figurative Language In Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven

Edgar Allan Poe's “The Raven” is a narrative poem which addresses the themes of death and melancholy through the repeated line of the ominous visitor “the raven” saying, “Nevermore” and the bleak mood that prevails the poem. It consists of eighteen stanzas composed of six lines each. The repetition of the phrase “nevermore” at the end of each stanza emphasizes the narrator's despair. Also, this repetition is one of the reasons that drive him mad. Hearing this phrase, “nevermore” constantly, the narrator is finally on the brink of frenzy. Through the words reflecting melancholy and sorrow, we can sense the narrator's self destruction due to the death of the woman he loved. As one examines the figurative language of the poem, one finds that its form and

Poe creates a suspense throughout the poem with the repetiton of the raven's answer ,”Nevermore”. We know that the narrator is in deep agony since he lost his wife and he is looking for ways of getting rid of this pain or even bringing his wife back to life. That's why he has been looking at various books, hoping for a miracle or something supernatural to happen. Thus, when the raven arrives, the narrator may have thought that he could find the answers to the questions in his head. And thus, everytime the raven answers his question with the same line, the narrator goes mad and the tension builds. The fact that the phrase “Nevermore” is repeated at the end of each stanza makes the tension more intense. When all the elements of the new critical approach are taken into consideration, we can say that “The Raven” is a great poem to analyze for the new critics since it has organic unity with its inseparable form and content. In order to understand the mood of the poem, one really does not need to have any background information about the time or the author. The words that were used in the text were sufficient to understand the melancholic mood of the