Many people cherish love as a precious belief. In today’s society, there is love everywhere. It is possible for some parts of the psyche to lose touch for a short time with reality when love ends. They find love again after they have overcome all adversity. One must wonder: What happens to a person who loses love? Edgar Allen Poe’s novel “The Raven” offers a possible answer. The reader forces a troubled, grieving narrator to read the poem. A raven later flies into the house to answer questions. Many readers find the story fascinating and it creates a feeling of wonder. The poem could also be understood as the story of an individual who is looking for human connection.
The poem contains subtle clues that the reader can see hints of his desire to connect with the raven. As the raven flies by, the narrator asks him questions. The narrator is fascinated by the raven and asks for its name. The metaphor, “Night’s Plutonian coast”, signifies that the raven can travel between worlds of death or life. This picture depicts the raven as a messenger of lost souls, much like Chiron in Greek mythology. The raven replies to the question with a loud, “Nevermore,” making the story appear supernatural. The narrator may have wanted the raven’s help, almost out of desperation. He may have altered his perception to make it so. His mind changed his perception and made it so. The narrator starts to think about the meaning of “Nevermore” after he has mentally discussed the topic. The narrator seems to be in a predicament when he starts to put the pieces together. This is a rather pessimistic image.
The narrator starts to doubt the raven, calling it a “prophet”. He demands that the raven tell him, “Tell this sad soul if, within distant Aidenn/It shall hold a sainted maiden whom angels call Lenore.” The narrator thinks of his wife as a “sainted Maiden” and asks the raven if it has ever seen her in Heaven. Unfortunately, his mental state at this point is questionable and he then apparently dies on the spot.
Edgar Allen Poe used a unique rhythm and rhyme scheme to describe the “love” he felt for “The Raven.” The poem has 6 lines with 16-17 syllables. One can see that the pattern closely resembles the trochee(Once U/pon A /midnight/ Dreary), which is the largest portion of each line’s 8 feet. The poem is written in trochaic octameter. Poe uses repetitions on occasion and creates internal rhymes. The poem’s rhyme scheme is ABCBBB, which was discovered after further examination. The reader may wonder: Why would this happen? Poe might have intended to draw the reader into his mind, hence the internal rhymes. The meter makes the story more attractive and more fantasy-like. The poem’s rhyme scheme also adds to its enjoyment. The poem’s overall beauty is enhanced with the addition of a unique form or meter.
The Raven is a story about a miserable, lonely man who wants to find out what happened to his wife Lenore. He also hopes to make a new human connection through the appearance of the raven. The reader might be surprised, however that the poet loses his sanity just before the end. This could mean that the narrator is not in love with the raven again and finds his “soul in that shadow lying on the floor” to be in the same place as death. It’s a cruel and sad way to lose what the narrator hopes to find: the chance to start over.
