The Raven

The Raven is a narrative poem written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1845. It is the most famous of his poems and the one that brought him great fame. The raven gained popularity very quickly, and several reprints and illustrated versions of the poem were made in a short time.

Edgar Allan Poe's intention in writing The Raven was to create a poem that would appeal to both the educated and the popular classes, so he wrote the poem methodically and logically.

A narrator whose name is never given sits reading at midnight, trying to forget the loss of his beloved Lenore. He hears a tapping at the door and then at the window, and when he opens the shutter a raven walks in and settles on a bust of Pallas above it.

The narrator asks him for his name but the only thing the raven answers is: "Nevermore", which astonishes him, since he had not expected the bird to speak at all. The narrator continues to interact with the raven but continually responds with the same phrase. The narrator supposes the bird learned the word from some former owner and that it is the only one it can say.

The narrator begins to think that the raven is a creature of the devil and tries to get rid of it...