How Does Edgar Allan Poe Use Alliteration In The Raven

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Perhaps the speaker of the poem is a man who has suffered the unfortunate loss of his dear loved one. This is demonstrated in the second stanza, in which he speaks of the “sorrow for the lost Lenore”, a “rare and radiant maiden” named by “angels”. The state of mind that the speaker was in escalated quickly over the poems timeline. At first he was mournful and somewhat calm. However, as the atmosphere of the room became increasingly tense and shrouded, the speaker began to slip out of reality. The raven truly drove the speaker to insanity due to the repetitious answers provided by it. The raven mirrors the speaker due to this repetitious cycle of “nevermore”. The speaker, much like the raven’s response, is drowned within this endless cycle of hopelessness and despair. …show more content…

For instance, in lines 24 through 26, there is a vast amount of alliteration that has to deal with the constant “d”, such as “darkness” or “doubting”. This adds a sense of depression looming over the speaker along with the idea of uncertainty and despair. Additionally, there is the alliteration in line 63, with the words “unhappy” and “unmerciful”. This provides the audience with the added feeling of despair and perhaps the feeling of death. Another set of alliteration is shown in line 71, with words such as “grim”, “ghastly”, and “gaunt”. These demonstrate more of the dark and misery-filled atmosphere that surrounds the