The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe | Plot Summary

Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe explains the plot summary of Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven.


Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" details the descent of its speaker into madness.

Mourning the loss of his love Lenore, he is visited one night by the inscrutable bird of the title. Suspecting that the raven is a supernatural being, he petitions it for information about Lenore but is only met with replies of "Nevermore." The bird's ominous repetition of the word slowly drives him into fury and despair.

The richly alliterative verse and internal rhyme of the short story lend it a sing-song musicality at odds with the Gothic literature subject matter, cementing its iconic status in popular culture, where it has been referenced in hundreds of films, songs, and novels.

Troubled American writer Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven was first published in January 1845. Part of its fame comes from the use of an unnamed narrator, the main character whose grief-stricken mental state over Lenore gradually deteriorates over the course of the poem stanza by stanza.

The book contains many powerful themes, such as Pallas Athena representing rational thought, Pluto representing the unbridgeable gap between life and death and the profound effects of the loss of a cherished love. Other themes include death, loss, loneliness, nightmare, alienation and the supernatural.


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[melisakaradas]

the poem was written in the 19th century, published in 1845.
It is a narrative poem which was a new style coined by Edgar Allan Poe.
the raven is said to symbolize death, and associated with agony.
the theme of the poem can be said the death of a beautiful woman(Lenore), lamenting after the woman's death.
the setting of the poem is a Gothic setting with a lonely apartment, a bleak December.
the poem consists of 18 stanzas.
rhyme of the poem: ABC BBB
trochaic octameter(8 stressed and 8 unstressed syllables)
the tone is pessimistic

[wujane]

Wonderful! This video helps a alot, I see many analyses of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and I really love him

[btetschner]

Russell Jaffe is such a fantastic teacher.

[ivannavarrete]

My take when I first heard the poem was that he killed lenor and thus his spirit would rise nevermore

[warningsigns]

last super bowl game is connected to this in Baltimore 2020 - death and agony?

[ssake_IAL_Research]

I have posted a paper, "Evidence that Edgar Allan Poe Stole 'The Raven' from Mathew Franklin Whittier, " which is downloadable at the following link. It can also be found by searching on the title on Academia.edu.