When the raven flew in the narrators's house and purched itself on the bust of the statue of the goddess above the door, the narrator found that the only word the bird knew was "nevermore." The narrator plays along with the bird and asks obvious questions that the winged beast could answer with the only word it knows, "nevermore." Then, the narrator flips his mind and starts to be pissed off at the bird. The things I want to know is why does raven sit on the bosom of the goddess and why does the narrator get so pissed when the bird didn't do anything?

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2002

Answers

The goddess in question is Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom. (And the raven doesn't sit on her bosom -- a 'bust' is a head & shoulders statue, and doesn't even have breasts!) This 'accidental' combination of speaking bird and symbol of wisdom leads the narrator to assume that the raven must be speaking the truth.

The anger which the narrator subsequently directs at the raven is actually aimed at himself, since (as you note) he only asks questions to which he knows the only answer the bird can give.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2002

tis is the kind of queer questins i hate the othr person who responded is gay.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2002