The Raven

Early in “The Raven,” the speaker frames the entirety of the narrative as a memory (“Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,” stanza 2). “The Raven” is, quintessentially, a poem about the burden of memory. It opens with the speaker reading to distract himself from thinking about Lenore (“vainly I had sought to borrow / From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore,” stanza 2), but his grief only intensifies and deepens as the poem progresses. The inescapable rapping at his chamber door may represent the intrusive thoughts associated with losing a loved one. While many love poems highlight the joys of romance, Poe’s highlights the reverse: that the memory of love lost can inflict insurmountable psychological harm.

Even if Lenore is not taken as a real person—and many scholars agree, it is safest to read “The Raven” not as an autobiographical poem, but rather as a Romantic exploration of human nature—Poe’s point is still applicable. Obsessive lingering on something long gone, like a lost loved one or even the friends and hopes the speaker describes in stanza 10, can only be harmful to the psyche.

At the same time, there is a certain hopelessness to the poem’s ending.