How Does Edgar Allan Poe Use Metaphors In The Raven

Edgar Allan Poe wrote a lot of creepy poems and stories in his life. Many of his poems are metaphors for death, grief, and other dark subjects. Poe most likely wrote some of these poems after he underwent a traumatic event in his life. His most famous poem, “The Raven,” is an excellent example of his use of metaphors. The bird in “The Raven” is a metaphor for grief because ravens are often considered to symbolize death, the timing the poem was written, and the conversation between the bird and the narrator. Edgar Allan Poe wrote “The Raven” shortly after his wife had fallen gravely ill. This timing helps explain why the poem is so grim and sad. In the poem, Poe paints a dark, grisly scene: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore” (ln 1-2). This helps explain the narrator’s actions and thoughts in the rest of the poem. Poe most likely struggled with depression, and probably felt some sort of guilt for his wife’s condition. The narrator falls asleep, and wakes up to a tapping noise. At first, the narrator believes it is a visitor knocking on his door, “‘Tis some visiter,’ I muttered, ‘tapping at my chamber door’” (ln 5). Once the narrator realizes that there is no one at his door, he starts looking for the source of the tapping. Poe repeatedly mentions the name

The narrator proceeds to believe that: “the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer / Swung by angels whose faint foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor,” showing how this bird’s mere presence is causing the narrator to go insane (ln 79-80). The narrator then starts to accuse the raven of being sent by God to help him forget Lenore, again adding to the suspicion that Poe wrote this poem about his