Is The Raven a hyperbole?

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2004

Answers

No. Hyperbole, strictly speaking is a device of large exagerration of the truth. Certain similes and metaphors can be hyperbolic. The narrator(the poet within the poem) certainly and willfully endows the raven with intelligent meaning and purpose in a game which he then takes totally serious, trapped by symbolism if you will, into facing his true despair. This psychological affliction, not supernatural, is true in itself, even when he says that shadow will be lifted "nevermore". The projection of his doubt does become the real shadow and pronouncement of the chosen omen and his final despair is thus truly fixed in reality, the shadow sealing his symbolic and emotional state.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2004