“Once upon a midnight dreary…”: What Makes “The Raven” By Edgar Allan Poe So Haunting?
Introduction
Published in 1845, “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe was met instantly with acclaim from critics and the public alike. Over 170 years after its initial release it still stands as one of the most widely read and analysed works of gothic horror. But what is it exactly that makes this one poem special in its ability to frighten and haunt so many generations of readers? The answer lies in its structure, diction, and use of symbolism.
Meter and rhymes
The poem is composed of eighteen verses, each containing six lines. Each verse follows the ABCBBB rhyming structure. What is more, the “B” lines of every verse end with the sound “or”. The great deal of regularity in the poem produces a trance-like rhythm. The state of not quite wakefulness and not quite dreaming the speaker finds himself in, as evidenced by the line “While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping” is reflected in the droning sound the poem creates when read aloud. Adding even further to the regularity of the work, several lines contain internal rhymes, such as “napping” and “tapping”.
Utilising dream-like sequences in his works is a characteristic trait of Poe’s writing. In his short stories it is usually closely linked to the concept of unreliable narration. The reader is pushed into the uncertain territory between dream and reality, thereby being forced to question the narrator’s and their own judgments. While a semblance of this function can certainly be found in the poem, what is more important about it is the interaction between sound and meaning. “The Raven” was quite clearly written with the intention of it being performed. In fact, recitations of the poem were frequently requested of Poe by his friends and fans. The features of the text mentioned above already have an enchanting effect on the reader, but the listener is impacted far more profoundly by the sound of it. Having familiarized themself with the rhythm, the listener begins to find comfort in following stanzas, not knowing that with each consecutive one, the speaker devolves further into madness. The rhythm therefore makes the poem almost into a lullaby, one that guides the audience to a false sense of security.
Repetition
The three building blocks most important in shaping the meaning of “The Raven” are the words replicated at the end of every stanza, namely “nothing more”, “evermore”, and “nevermore”. The speaker utters “nothing more” when he, with an increasing degree of desperation, attempts to calm his spirit, disturbed by the mysterious goings-on around him. When he throws the window open in the sixth stanza, his words take the form of a triumphant exclamation of “’Tis the wind and nothing more!”, something noticeably different from the anxious muttering of the previous lines. The reader is led to believe that any danger the speaker might face has been conquered by this dramatic gesture. Indeed, he proceeded to, for a time, speak more calmly, noting about the raven that had entered his home only “Perched, and sat, and nothing more”. The word “evermore” is used once to highlight the speaker’s longing for his lost love, Lenore. Perhaps more interestingly, it is used as a piece of foreshadowing – the reader associates it with “nevermore” due to their contrasting meanings. The word “nevermore” is the primary tool of torment the speaker is subjected to. The titular corvid answers each question asked of him with this single-word response. The speaker is assured that his new companion, similarly to his grief after Lenore, shall never leave him. In the last line of the poem, “nevermore” is instead uttered by the speaker himself, signaling that he has succumbed completely to grief-induced madness.
Symbolism
The concept of duality or doppelgängers appears frequently in Poe’s work. This concept is present in “The Raven” in the form of, well, the raven and the bust of Pallas. Both ravens and the Greek goddess Pallas, likely more commonly known as Athena, are commonly associated with the intellect. Ravens, and corvids in general, are known to be some of the most intelligent species of birds, having been observed to mimic human speech or use tools to solve problems. Pallas, of course, is the goddess of wisdom. The connection between her and the raven is evident. However, it is exactly this similarity that allows the two to be juxtaposed. While Athena is associated with warfare, it is only warfare for a just cause that she represents. On the other hand, ravens symbolise death, indiscriminate death, and are themselves thought to be harbingers of it. While the connotations of Pallas’s image are mostly positive, bringing to mind such words as “honour” and “justice”, the connotations of the raven’s image are decidedly negative. Together, the two can be considered as a stand-in for the human mind, which is at all times balancing (or losing balance) between optimism and morbidity.
Conclusion
“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe remains as haunting to modern audiences as it was to Poe’s contemporaries because of his skilful usage of literary devices. The rhythm of the poem puts the reader into a dream-like trance in which they are more susceptible to the author’s signature “horror of the soul”. The repetition of certain words boosts the effect created by the repetition, and enriches the story by shifting the meanings of “nevermore” depending on the context. Lastly, the symbols used create a conflict between the admirable and shameful aspect of the human mind, forcing the reader to grapple with questions of their own sanity.
Page design: Pola Kurek
Works Cited
Poe, Edgar Allan. Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Vol.1. Poems. Belknap P. of Harvard U.P, 1969.
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