I would like to know what the meaning of 'The Raven' means. I am very confused about the poem and would like more information about the poem to help me understand it better.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2001

Answers

The Raven is about a man who has lost his wife to death and is struggling to deal with his lonliness, and despair. He is also trying to come to terms on whether or not their is a God, therefore a heaven to met his dead wife in. The raven, the actual bird, is basically him and his concious wrestling each other for the answer.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001

Well, if you want to know how it relates to him, I can tell you! He writes it out of dispair that any happiness he has had in his life is his last...he'll be happy "nevermore".

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001

According to Poe himself the Raven is an emblematic symbol of a mournful and everlasting remembrance of a love deceased. The man can't get over it and no consolation or unbridgeable separation can settle his affliction. This is Poe's basic problem with all his deceased loved ones who never quite go away, as he sometimes openly wishes they would.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001

As the other people said, Poe is explaining his depression over his beloved love, Lonore, through the writing of "The Raven". It took me a few times to re-read the entire poem before I was able to come up with the conclusion of the full meaning behind the selection. In the verse: 'But the raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing further then he uttered; not a feather then he fluttered; Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before; On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before." Then the bird said, "Nevermore."' It clearly shows you how the raven is a symbolization of depression and how that depression will never again leave his side as it had so many times before.

This is truly a master piece; I have selected it for my English project.

-- Anonymous, February 28, 2003

This poem by Edgar Allan Poe I believe is derived from his own feelings and basically what was happening in his life at the time. This is when he was getting over the many people who had meant so much to him and had made an influence on his life. He was also not sure if God was real because he had taken so many people away from Edgar which in the poem is why the narrator is feeling so alone. The character Lenore is all the problems and deaths that he has had to cope with and he is the raven.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2003

whats pallas and plutonian shore???

i think the speaker is going crazy, and he sees this "bird" that doesn'leave his side, and is haunting him and giving him these answer like you'll never be happy again and stuff.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2003

well i know pallas is the goddess of wisdom in greek mythology,and plutonian or pluto for short is the god of the underworld in roman mythology.In the Raven they were statues above the narrorators door.

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2003

Pallas is the goddess Athena in Greek Mythology. Plutonian Shore would be the Roman name for Hades, the Greek god of the Underworld. Plutonian Shore, to me, would seem to indicate the banks of the River Styx, which flows through the underworld realm of Hades.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2003

For me the raven symbolizes the man's feelings of fear and loneliness that will never leave him. The raven, in the end, is still sitting on that bust of Pallas. His insequrities will never be gone, he only wants to know however, whether Lenore is in heaven and happy. at the end of the poem he becomes distressed and seems not to care anymore. He is trapped in his anger and hatred. "And my soul from out thyat shadow shall be lifted, nevermore"

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2003

I believe that 'The Raven' is about Edgar Allen Poe himself. "Lenore" just a name used but was a women that he loved, and i actually believe that "Lenore" was related to him. Either way, 'The Raven' expresses a higher spiritual power that reminds the man of his deceased lover; by the bird coming to the window he knows that she is there. Because the raven represents death, not to just remind Ed of her, but to know that she is there and that she always will be. I belive Ed was a drunk as well and he actually invisioned or actually saw these things, because he was so crazy that he was a genious. They say that their is a fine line between genious and insane. I belive he was both.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2003

I've just been working with the poem in class and, as it usually happens, my pupils have happily surprised me with an interesting new point of view: the raven stands for Poe's serious problems with alcohol. Like the raven, alcoholism was an unwanted guest in Poe's life. Sometimes it could be heaven and most often it was hell (the character in the poem cannot distinguish whether the raven had been sent by God or the Tempter). Also, the raven could have brought 'respite and nepenthe' that's relief and oblivion (mainly what people try to look for in a glass). Finally, the character, just like Poe, knows that 'his soul will never be lifted from that shadow' that is, he will never break free from his addiction. Whether it is true or not (the raven might simply be a raven after all), I found my pupils' intepretation as original and very valid. Cheers.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2003

you people have no life

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2003

I chose to do The Raven for a final project in a directing class, so I re-wrote it as a play. I envision that this is a story of a man wrestling to forget the past, but in every moment haunted by the memories of Lenore. The Raven is a bird of sadness, and in many cultures forshadows ominous things to come. The raven in this story is settling in the narrator's life, and showing him that if he lives in the past, he will be trapped there forever. He narrator uselessly seeking answers from the bird, shown also by it being perched on the Godess of wisdom's head. In my play, Lenore and a memory self of the narrator are actually around him dancing, and at the end, the narrator kills himself when he realizes that his life will forever continue only in the past.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2003

i believe that poe the raven is about a man who's trying to ease his sorrow about a loved one

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2003

i m going a school thing and dont understand the meaning of the raven and i have to write it down for school

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2004

I don't believe poe wrote the raven over Lenore's death. He first published it in 1845 2 years before Lenore died. He may have known about her sickness and was worried about her death or he Lenore could have brought some bad things with her. I'm sure there were some people who looked down on the union between them.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2004

I'm a junior in high school, and we've just spent the last two days reading, "The Raven". We're supposed to write an essay on our interpretation of the poem, since suposedly there are many. This story is not physically taking place; it exists within the main character's mind. Much of the symbolism throughout the poem suggests this. Some of the symbolism: The raven itself is black, universally represently mystery/disorder/death. The Raven enters the mans den and perches itself high above the "chamber" door on a statue of Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom. The staue of Athena symbolizes the man's wisdom. The bird perches on a high fixture because he brings the truth, but he is, nonetheless interfering with the man's ability to think rationally. I beleive the man is day- dreaming in and out of the whole poem. I dont doubt that a raven actually came into his den. Infact, I beleive the man's ego took the image of the raven into his psyche and his id connected it to his preexiting, subsoncious feelings about "lenore's" death. The man subconsiously feels guilty. He only imagined that the bird told him he would never see Lenore again, but since he already felt guilty about her death, this sealed the deal for him and he lost all hope of one day being happy. He became seriously depressed and lost his will to live. He now also questions the existence of a god.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2004

I believe that The Raven was a symbol of his deression. And, I believe that he is still depressed. "And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting on the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;".

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2004

The anwser is that i like the peom and that he meant everything what had said in the peom realy happened

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2004

The anwser is that i like the peom and that he meant everything what had said in the peom realy happened.

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2004

Carolyn has no life either b/c she wastes her life saying that you all have no life. THE RAVEN IS (maybe) THE BEST POEM EVER WRITTEN!!!!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2004

The poem is about nehilism. the belief in nothing. he is showing that the classics are dead, "Nevermore".

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2004

His loss and unexpected sorrow of a haunting by past memories.

"Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend," I shrieked, upstarting- "Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken!- quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2004

defined in terms that were at least 'formally' unavailable to the man himself... the intruder might represents the existential realty of excepting that.. this precious little thing we possess- OUR LIFE- will be inevitability snatched from us..... and if the heart-beat of life is love the raven of reality reminds us that love is as fragile and fleeting as WE are, :

what was and even is is already lost, to be seen again Nevermore.............

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2004

Could the Raven possibly represent death?

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2004

What was wrong with Poe writing this mixed up mess? Doesnt make any sense.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2005

I'm doing a psychoanalysis of the narrator, from the perspective of the raven as an assignment for school. If anyone could give advise on a disorder or mental instibility other than depression over the loss of a loved one. such as schizophrenia and he's imagining the raven altogether...or the raven is his conscience and is his alter- ego.

thanx

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2005