“The Raven” is an excellent example of a romantic poem. The main character is a man who is set apart from society. He is just sitting alone in his room with his thoughts trying to get rid of the grief he is feeling. When he hears the tapping, he is filled with strange emotions, which he believes have never been felt by anyone else. Basically, this man considers himself to be different and alone in the world.

Poe uses rhyme and internal rhyme in “The Raven”. The last word in the second, fourth, fifth, and sixth lines all rhyme with the “or” sound. Not only do the last words in each stanza rhyme, but all the last lines in each stanza also rhyme (lore, door, nevermore, Lenore, implore, explore…). Poe also used in internal rhyme in the third and fourth lines. The seventh and eighth syllables of the third line rhyme with the fifteenth and sixteenth syllables of the same line that rhyme with the seventh and eighth syllables of the fourth line (napping, rapping, tapping, that is, lattice, thereat is…). This internal rhyme holds true throughout the entire composition. Poe also uses meter in his writing that also hold true for the entire poem. The first through fifth lines all have sixteen syllables with the accent on the first syllable followed by an unaccented syllable. The sixth line has but seven syllables but is maintained throughout the entire poem.

The inside of the chamber of this man at midnight is very lifeless, melancholy, dreary, and grim. The fire is beginning to die, and it is becoming darker and lonelier as time goes on. Outside, the world is a drab, dark, and gloomy December. All the dark descriptions of the setting establish the mood of the poem. These descriptions that describe the setting will also come into play when understanding what is going on in the man’s head and thoughts. The raven and the use of the word “nevermore” as a refrain are two other ideas used for this same purpose. When the black raven first enters into the room and poem, he sits on the bust of Pallas. This is used as a contrast, the bust being an ashen color and the bird being ebony. It is like good, the white, against evil, the black.

At the raven’s entrance, the man casually and nonchalantly talks to the bird and asks it what its name is. The raven, surprisingly enough, answer him with the word “nevermore”. At first, the man believes this raven was sent as a sign from Heaven about his lost Lenore, and he continues conversing with it. To everything he says to the creature, it answers with the same statement: “nevermore”. The man realizes that this word is the only word the raven knows how to say, and yet, he carries on, asking the bird questions. When he asks about forgetting his lost Lenore, the raven, obviously, states, “Nevermore.” Even though the man does understand that is the only expression the bird knows, he gets angry and decides that it was really sent from Hell as a demon to torture him in his suffering. He begins screaming at the creature sitting on the bust above his door to leave his room and his heart and his loneliness alone. The only reply the bird has is “nevermore”. The bird is still sitting, never flitting from its place above the door.

The raven is used as a symbol of the man’s own demons. At first his soul is beginning or seeming to begin to grow stronger. (The bird is first thought to be sent from above.) Then, his soul slips back into what his true emotions are: grief and unhappiness. (The bird is now believed to be sent from below.) His feelings are personified into a bird: a dark, evil bird. The darkness inside him is represented by the darkness in the color of the bird. The only word the creature knows how to say is “nevermore”, the word that tortures the man as he questions the bird, which is like the way the man is torturing himself. The use of this expression as a refrain shows how and reinforces the fact that his emotions of sorrow, sadness, loneliness, and despair will always be, no matter how hard he tries, inside of him. They will leave him, just as the raven will, nevermore. Inside his soul, his feelings are darkening and becoming lonelier. This same thing is happening to his surroundings as the night wears on. The embers in the fire glow less, the darkness gets darker, and the shadows float across the floor more just as his soul will be lifted from the cold, dark shadows nevermore.