Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven

The Raven is a play that was written by Edgar Allan Poe in early 1845. It’s his most famous work by far, and brought him fame until his tragic death a few years later. It’s a combination of a dark theme (later to be considered the inspiration for the gothic style of writing) and very light, whimsical cadence, brought on by its heavy reliance on rhyme. It sounds like a children’s song – until you really look at what the words are saying.

The play opens with a narrator in his home library late at night. A raven flies in through the window and perches in the room. The scholar is initially amused, especially because the raven seems to only be able to say one word – nevermore (ravens, just like parrots, are able to copy sounds that they hear, and this includes human speech). He decides to start asking it questions to see if he can figure out where it came from, but as he continues to get the same answer over and over he starts to think that maybe this raven is an evil creature instead, and he wants it gone. He tells it that he only wants to die a good person so he can be with his dead lover Lenore again. The bird, predictably, says this will happen ‘nevermore’ and the scholar falls to the ground, convinced that he will never be happy in life or death again.

The poem chose its raven metaphor well, as ravens have a trickster persona throughout mythology. Odin had two ravens that kept him informed of the happenings in the world, and Noah couldn’t get a straight answer from a raven as to whether or not the flood waters were gone.

Sadly, the Raven poem didn’t bring Poe the financial success he had hoped for. He died broke and alone a few years later, after being found beaten on a sidewalk.