"The Raven" The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe, is a poem about sadness, loss of hope, and lost love. The poem takes place at night "upon a midnight dreary." The poem examines emotions felt by a young man who has lost his lover to death. The following essay will examine these feelings, and try to distinguish the meaning of the poem. The first stanza seems to set the mood of the poem, "Once upon a …showed first 75 words of 1104 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1104 total…cast by the Raven upon the chamber floor then is the shadow of death, and the lover cannot escape the shadow no matter how hard he might try. The final lines of the poem hammer the final nails into the lover's symbolic coffin: "And my soul from out that shadow...Shall be lifted-nevermore!" All is lost; the lover has no hope of reclaiming his lover or his soul. Ever. Or, as the Raven quoth: NEVERMORE.