Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary" begins one of Edgar Allen Poe's most well-known poems called "The Raven". While I was a student in college, I read many poems for my English minor. I am not usually one to go along with being a fan of the most popular poems but "The Raven" is an exception.

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most influential writers of the American Romanticism period. He lived a financially difficult life in trying to earn a living through writing alone. Poe had an emotionally difficult life as a child. His mother died not long after his father abandoned the family. He was raised by John and Francis Allan from whom his middle name was given. Poe later became estranged from the Allans. In 1835, Poe married his thirteen year old cousin Virginia Clemm. Ten years later "The Raven" was written and two years following its publication Virginia died of tuberculosis having fought the disease for at least three years.

Tuberculosis was a disease with no effective treatment until 1946. Therefore at the time Virginia was diagnosed, Poe realized her condition would be fatal. It is suspected Poe's later poem "Lenore" involves his coming to terms with his wife's death. Because Lenore is the name also used in "The Raven" as "lost Lenore" it seems reasonable to suspect the narrator is coming to terms with what he knows will be the loss of his wife.

Anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one understands the depression and agonizing feeling of insanity that comes along with accepting that loss. "The Raven" is filled with language highly symbolic of someone in mourning and coming close to insanity. The narrator is "weak and weary", "bleak December," "deep into that darkness peering", and other quotes leave the reader with a feeling of darkness and sadness. Someone who experiences the prolonged illness of a loved one with the knowledge it will end in the loss of the loved one's life understands the fear in contemplating that loss and it later becoming a reality. The narrator seems to lose himself in reading, pondering, and torturing himself for something he cannot change-loneliness and knowing he will lose his beloved. Throughout the poem, the narrator hopes the raven has answers and is speaking from wisdom as is demonstrated in the raven's choice to perch on the "bust of Phallus"---the goddess of wisdom in Greek. The narrator desires answers over his lost Lenore only to consistently hear the word "Nevermore." Eventually the narrator realizes the raven can speak only the word "nevermore". In spite of the raven perching on a bust that represents wisdom, the narrator in the end gives up on finding his answers and says, "And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor. Shall be lifted- nevermore"! It can be inferred "The Raven" is about coming to terms with the loss of a loved one and a man's descent into madness in trying to cope with the situation.