Independent Reading Level: 6th-12th grade.
Awards: N/A

Really wonderful.

Instead of "Lenore," the main character gets the Raven who repeats, "Nevermore."

Sometimes I'm slow to pick up on symbolism and other literary devices and simply appreciate the story for its mood and more direct meanings. However, "The Raven" lets even someone as straightforward as me appreciate it for what it is: the narrator hopes in vain that the rapping at his doors and windows are those of Lenore, or the wind, but instead a Raven moves in and in response to all his verbalized hopes, "Nevermore." Sometimes things in life are simply gone.

Meanwhile, I don't see why the protagonist isn't excited to have a stoic new roommate. Sounds like he sticks around. ( )

I loved it. I definitely am not a poetry lover but I really got this poem and understood it right away. The word choice, rhyme, pacing, mood were truly imaginative and intelligent. ( )

The Raven is a poem that can be appreciated on several levels, not the least of which is construction. One of the most perfectly constructed alliterative poems ever penned, who has not thrilled to "and the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain"? It trips off the tongue and at the same time it calls up a perfect image of a Gothic library with heavy curtains that should not, but do, rustle.

It is a study in loneliness, mourning, stress and madness. As the narrator tells us the tale of the raven's visit, he gradually degrades from someone who is attempting to find logical explanations for this event to someone who completely believes in the supernatural nature of the bird. He can no longer think rationally, because he asks repeated questions for which he hopes to get a positive answer but which can only get the one word response that the bird is able to give, "nevermore".

Whatever hope he may have had of recovering from the loss of his love or gaining some relief from his suffering, even in the next life, is vanquished by the repeated denials of the bird. His attempts to forget his loss and his love are seen as impossible. In the progress of the poem, we witness a man sink from loss to loss to hopelessness. In the end, he no longer clings to any remnant of his sanity. For him, the bird, "bird or devil", is something far more than an earthly creature, and it remains forever, just as his memory does, before his eyes, impossible to avoid. ( )