Grief In The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe

In a poem about grief, Edgar Allan Poe uses repetition and imagery to represent that grief is something that can drive a person insane. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is about a perpetually grieving man gone mad because of the loss of Lenore, a woman who was very dear to him. Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, and editor. At the age of twenty-seven, he married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia (Shmoop). Poe began working on The Raven while his wife was suffering from Tuberculosis, a disease that had previously taken both of his parents, and possibly even his brother (Johnston). This poem could be a way for Poe to cope with the fact that he was going to soon also lose his wife to this disease, he knew that soon, he too would be

The poem starts by introducing the narrator, a man dozing off in his home, who then hears a knock at his door (Poe 1209). This knock begins to make the narrator anxious, and he has to remind himself that it is just a visitor, and nothing else. As he goes to open the door, he begins to remember what he describes as a bleak December, this is possibly when he lost Lenore. He says how he wished for the morrow, and looked to his books as a way to end his sorrow, his sorrow for Lenore, a woman that he describes as a rare and radiant maiden. Thinking about these things got himself all worked up, and once again to calm himself he repeats that it is just a visitor at the door. He needs to remind himself of this otherwise he will think of it as Lenore, but she is gone, and it cannot possibly be her at the door. Poe may be using this as a way to prepare himself for the future, when he will inevitably lose Virginia to tuberculosis, and she will no longer knock on the door. The narrator then speaks before opening the door, and once he has opened it, it is revealed there is no one there. He stands and to break the silence, he whispers “Lenore,” showing that despite being gone, she is still on his mind, and even though he knew that she would not be at the door, he still hoped that she was, he hoped to be able to see his lover once more. The narrator then goes to his window, where he has heard a

The bird then appears at the window, pecking on it until the narrator opens it, and in steps the raven. After the man has become aware of the raven, it does not move, it just stays there above the man’s door, this unmoving and unwavering presence illustrates that the grief the man is experiencing will always be there. Ravens are often associated with death, and the raven in the poem is associated with death as well, but more so the grief that follows it. The raven speaks to the man, only ever saying the word “nevermore,” because the narrator will never see Lenore again. The raven is not actually speaking, the man is imagining it, just after hearing the knock on his door, he has become so overtaken by his grief and sorrow, that he is now hallucinating a talking bird. The narrator uses the word “beguiling” to describe the bird, it means to charm something in a deceptive way, or to trick. He says the bird is tricking him into smiling, intriguing him to pull a chair over to the door and sit near the bird, just how grief can trick someone into thinking of someone that they lost, and at first the memories may bring a joyous feeling, but then the bittersweet feeling of missing them steps in and then