The Raven by Robert DiYanni - Book Report/Review Example

As the narrator stated, “Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore –“ By this, we can imply that there was a love story involved that brought about the poem, yet it is not all a love story since we are not shown what exactly may have occurred causing the man to lose Lenore. From the lines, there is a certain implication of bleakness, a loss of an important thing, or person, from the beginning.

We were shown the result of what must have been a love story before that dreary night, something that must have ended badly for it to cause such despair in a man. Each stanza of the poem somehow managed to use language that conveyed the mourning of an infinitely painful loss, a loss that may lead a man to believe anything he hears and give meaning to it in relation to what he is feeling, which is sorrow. Also, we can see that as the story of the poem progressed, the man talks to the raven as if somehow the bird could understand his queries and give him a solution for the dreariness and give him a form of closure from his loss.

We see him asking questions and trying to find answers in the one word that the raven could speak- “Nevermore”.`Doubtless, said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disasterFollowed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden boreOf "Never-nevermore." (Poe 840 )2. The raven may symbolize hope, or even symbolize Lenore, the narrator’s lover. Whenever he asked the raven if there is a chance of seeing her again, or of reversing the predicament he is in, the raven, who somehow introduced itself as “Nevermore”, could only speak the same word over and over again, dashing even the man’s last hopes of seeing Lenore again.

“And the only word there was spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!Merely this and nothing more”(Poe 839 )From the beginning of the poem, we saw darkness described in detail, and we were introduced to a man who has just lost his beloved. We can see how the darkness and dreary weather could be symbolic, representing the bleakness in the man’s emotions after he has lost his love. The raven’s blank stare and persistent answers brought out the man’s anguish and struck him as evil and he saw the raven as a harbinger of finality regarding his loss.

“But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.”… (Poe 840 )The raven sitting on the bust staring at the man blankly, and crying “nevermore” is a constant reminder to him that there is no more chance of him being with his beloved, mocking him by its persistent presence in his room as if sitting in his mind telling him he has nothing more to hope for.“And the lamp-light over him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floorShall be lifted - nevermore!

,” (Poe 841)