The Raven by Poe?

Question

What exactly is the story of this poem?

Answer 1

"The Raven" is no doubt the work Poe is best known for. Poe takes his favorite theme, the untimely death of a beautiful woman, and makes it understandable and fascinating. Poe was a moody bookworm, and Virginia Poe's health had been declining since 1842 so this fear and torment served as the inspiration and of course Poe was also accused of having been inspired in other ways as well. Some might call it plagiarism as he supposedly used the "purple curtains" from the Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning and, the speaking bird from Charles Dickens' novel Barnaby Rudge.
Stanza 1- 5
It’s a cold dark December day and the speaker in the poem is tired and reading volumes of "forgotten lore as he is about to fall asleep he hears tapping on his chamber door. A thrill of half-wonder, half-fear overcomes the speaker he thinks it may be the spirit of his departed Lenore and mustering the courage he goes to see who is tapping at the door. He looks but sees only darkness, “this and nothing more.” Standing there looking out he whispers into the darkness ….“Lenore”. Like helloooo is that you there? Kinda spooky huh? .
Stanza 6 – 8
Now he hears more tapping but louder and he throws open the shutter and in flies a BIG BLACK RAVEN. And the speaker wonders if it is from the underworld or hell (represented by “Plutonian shore”). The bird sits on the on the bust of Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom . A little irony here. He ask the bird it’s name….and it replies “NEVERMORE”.
Stanza 9 – 12
The speaker has a feeling this bird will depart as so many things in his life have and so he forgets about it and then when he discovers that it REALLY IS there, he pulls up a chair and sits right in front of the RAVEN to examine and try to understand why the bird keeps croaking “Nevermore”.
Stanza 13 – 16
As he gets more and more captivated by the raven the air gets more and more dense and a strong familiar scent comes over him from some where. Again he thinks it must be his departed Lenore. But he reasons that the bird cannot be her and so it must be some kind of evil sent from Hell (Plutonian shore) to torment him. One of his torments is the struggle he is having trying to discover where his Lenore is and the Raven keeps answering “Never more”.
He grows more angry and shouts at the raven asking him why he was sent but the raven only replies "never more". He continues to ask and this time asks if Lenore sent him, but again the reply continues to be the same.

Stanza 17 – 18
By now the speaker is getting a little nuts and wants to get ride of this raven that will not answer him and only torments him. And he rebukes the bird and asks it whether there is "balm in Gilead," a biblical reference to relief in a land filled with suffering. But as his efforts for answers are in vain and his attempt to get it to go only cause the Raven to become more heinous, even demoniac suddenly the speakers soul from out the shadow lifts up off the floor.
“And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted- nevermore”
The mystery is in this last part and in the implication that the raven may have been a part of Poe himself …or perhaps this shadow is the speaker dieing or going mad from the emotional torment of this experience and remaining captive to this tormenting condition from which the release …is and forever will be ....“NEVERMORE”.

Well ok ...I hope my comments help. But keep in mind that it is a rather complex work of art and as such subject to some degree of interpretation which may not always agree
Goodluck!

Answer 2

The dude's true-love, Lenore, died, and he's heartbroken. He takes to drink and drugs (it doesn't say this in the poem, but Poe himself did at times, and the poem sure sounds like it). A raven comes, and says "Nevermore;" at first the dude thinks the raven is cute, somebody's escaped pet, then he starts to think the raven's former owner had been brought to despair by repeated misfortunes, and he eventually gets convinced that the raven has come to torment him. He ends up in total despair.
The whole presentation of the poem suggests that the raven might be an hallucination or an apparition. How would a real raven get into his room?

Answer 3

It is about the inner feelings and heartache of a man who has lost his long lost love, Lenore. The raven (literal bird) comes to him and mocks him saying that he will never be with her. The raven torments the man in the poem. It is also how the man feels, that he will never have her again (only since it's a poem it can do whatever it wants and in this case rather than have him just think that a talking bird comes to him) The raven makes the man mad, feeling as if he can't escape his feelings and will never get over his heartache

Answer 4

First of all, that so called "bird" as someone put it. Is a raven, and do you know what ravens carry on them? They carry a person's soul, in this case, Poe's wife's soul. And it just shows that something that's so emotionally attached to someone, can eventually drive them mad. So in a way, Poe's wife got revenge on him through this Raven, that some people only consider a "bird". Hope that helps:)

Answer 5

A guy that goes crazy over his dead wife and is visited by a talking raven.

Answer 6

it`s about a bird called a raven.

Answer 7

Some crazy white guy who's scared of a bird. Written by a crazy white guy, too.

Answer 8

OK, there's a dude. This broad dies on him. He cries over the stiff all night long. Bird tells him he'll never see her again.

Answer 9

Read it. It's not that long.