In celebration of Poe’s 200th birthday and of course, Hallowe’en
The Raven is such a cultural icon that it’s worthy of revisiting from time to time. But upon reading it, one is left wondering how much of it is real & how much is from Poe’s drug & alcohol fueled imagination. He was like the Jim Morrison of his time.
The setting is late one night in an empty house where the narrator is woken from a nap by mysterious noises, an investigation reveals a raven at the window, who comes into the room and makes himself at home, endlessly croaking “Nevermore.” It all sounds so minuscule, doesn’t it? But the atmosphere and open interpretation is what has made it last, it’s not an adventure in bird watching.
Ravens are good mimics and can indeed say words. They are the largest member of the Corvidae family, which includes crows, but differs from them in their size(nearly a meter long) & shaggy feathers about the throat. They fly like hawks more than crows, with a mix of wing beats and soaring, so having one land on your windowsill would be startling indeed, especially since ravens are diurnal(daytime) birds. An owl would’ve been more logical and less weird, but of course weird was what Poe wanted.
Ravens will eat most anything, including carrion and in the past were known to feed on fallen soldiers on battlefields. This is the aspect which Poe focuses on throughout: the raven is there as a representative of death to take him there or bring a message.Poe’s overreaction could also be due to the raven as a symbol of his fear or possibly his conscience, though that is done much better in The Tell Tale Heart.
The raven turns up long after Hallowe’en, on a night in December, a month usually associated with the joys of Christmas and Hanukkah. But it’s also when the long nights of winter sets in.The narrator is trying to divert his mind from “the lost Lenore”, (presumably a lady love who has died) by reading, but I suspect he’s had some liquid refreshment.When he opens the window to see who’s tapping, the raven comes in and lands on a statue of Pallas, the Titan god of warcraft.Poe sits down on a velvet cushion and proceeds to have a staredown with the bird. He asks the bird it’s name and the bird says “nevermore”. While I doubt anyone expected “Polly”, you must admit that’s a strange name for a bird, or anything, really. Nevermore is a word originating in Medieval England about 1200 that means “never again”. The raven repeats it 7 times in the poem.Obviously a bird of few words.
I’ve heard of people panicking when a sparrow has gotten into the house, so I can imagine the effect a larger bird with a larger, sharper beak would have. But thinking the bird is a messenger from the underworld still seems like going a bit too far. But the narrator insists that the raven is bringing him a message from Lenore, though he never finds out what it is. Again, a carrier pigeon would be more logical. Perhaps the raven won’t divulge his secrets because Poe calls him “ungainly fowl” and other insulting names?
The narrator becomes hypnotized by the raven’s shadow and the poem ends with him either falling back to sleep or dying, with the raven stealing his soul. My guess is a return to his nap, since I can’t imagine the narrator not going on and on about the afterlife had he died.
Originally published in 1845 and reprinted many times since in various mediums, I read it this time online at Bartleby.com
Great review, Jackie! Never trust a raven is what I say!…
Axxx
Great Halloween post! Thought this might help with the level of spookiness – a recent post of mine in which, if you click onto The Raven link, just above the image of the bird at the bottom, you will see Poe ‘actually’ reciting the poem himself.
http://virtualvictorian.blogspot.com/2009/10/edgar-allen-poes-second-funeral.html
Very appropriate for the time of year! And a very interesting take on an old favorite.
A great poem that clicks on spookiness and won’t let you go until the end, and you’re well spooked even after the end. The Simpsons did an episode with this poem, and it was great too – very spooky.
This is one of my favorite Poe poems, Jackie! Reading your interesting review, I smiled along with my goose bumps!
The thing about EAP was that however gothic the tale, he didn’t play tricks with his readers – he nearly always made it fairly clear what his intentions were (the Masque of the Red Death is an exception – and there may be others, but I can’t think of them). If someone is asleep we’re told that he wakes up and realizes it was all a dream. And none of his narrators are telling their tale from beyond the grave – which is why we know – for instance – the victim in The Pit and the Pendulum is going to make it …
So, the not only is the narrator of The Raven is still very much alive and apparently awake at the end of the poem – the raven itself is – we can only assume – still sitting on that bust of Pallas …
So Moira, you admit he was sleeping at the beginning(line 21)? What about when he opened his door & saw only blackness? Why wasn’t there lights, houses or even stars in the sky? Or if it was inside- walls, doors or furniture?
Eventually, the narrator would’ve gotten bored or tired of the stare down with the raven and become drowsy. Would the situation still be as threatening once daylight arrived?
The main proof I use for it all being a dream is the uncharacteristic behavior of the raven. Even considering that it was a pet(with the Dickens connection), why was it flying around at night, long after dusk? Even an escaped pet would’ve soon settled in a tree to wait for daylight. If the narrator thought it was a pet, why didn’t he grab his copy of the Baltimore Sun newspaper to check Lost and Found? The fact that he accepted a raven at night as normal, indicates a skewed version of things that are common in dreams. Or hallucinations.
I didn’t find it spooky (though it was a bit eerie at the beginning), but I was too distracted by the inaccurate behavior of the bird to be lured into the mood and impending hysteria of the narrator.
“While I doubt anyone expected ‘Polly’…”
You made me spit out my wine!
Lovely, irreverent piece about a revered piece!
*Sigh*. Ah, Jackie … my dear, literal-minded friend …
If you try to apply 21st Century cynicism to 19th Century Gothic poetry, it’s only likely to end in tears.
In order to enjoy Poe you have to suspend disbelief. We do it all the time when we watch films and TV. We know, stricly speaking, that something doesn’t necessarily make complete sense, but we go along with it because it’s fun and entertaining. I mean – why does no-one in crime/horror/suspense thriller EVER think to SWITCH THE BL**DY LIGHTS ON?
To the Victorians (who LOVED the poem … it almost literally became a cult overnight) the idea of a raven (a s*dding great black bird, with a wingspan of about 5 feet – that was historically considered to be – literally – a bird of ill omen) taking up residence in their libraries was a complete bone-chiller. Its tri-syllabic idea of snappy conversation was just the cherry on the icing.
Nowadays, of course, people would just call the local Council and get the pest-control officer out. But isn’t it more fun to sit back, whack on the black lippy and nail varnish and go with the flow …?
I must take issue with the possibility that “The Raven” was, at least in part, “from Poe’s drug & alcohol fueled imagination.” As we know today, Poe was never a druggie – not a drug addict, not a recreational drug user, and only once do we have evidence he took a drug for medical purposes in all his 40 years. As for alcohol, we definitely know that he didn’t “drink and write” – he was more often sober than drunk (his drinking was very, very rare, in fact). Your phrase “Poe’s overreaction” also bears the common mistake of assuming every first-person “I” narrator in Poe’s works is meant to be Poe himself. Far, far from it!
“Weird” is not what Poe wanted. “Realistic” is what he wanted, while still allowing for depth of symbolism, especially because, as you note, ravens can indeed learn to speak a word or two. As for symbolism, the bird of ill omen is much better than the owl, a representative of wisdom – but that’s why the bust of Pallas is there. She’s not the god of “warcraft” as you say – she’s the goddess of wisdom, allowing for us to recognize the contrast that this narrator is not being logical. I also note that those who don’t find “The Raven” scary (including Lisa Simpson) are absolutely correct. The poem is not a “horror poem.” Poe himself told us his purpose: to create a mood of sadness or, as he put it, “mournful and never-ending remembrance.” If you don’t get that from “The Raven,” you’re reading the wrong poem!
As for the ending, if you’d like my interpretation: the poem is about the conflict between the struggle to forget his lost Lenore (so that he can move on) and the struggle to remember her love (leaving him perpetually saddened). At the end, we see the narrator is apparently forever in the raven’s shadow (“never flitting”), so we should have a good idea which side won the conflict. I think the narrator simply must survive this run-in with the raven for the ending to be poignant.
Had Poe wanted to be realistic, he would’ve had the narrator shown more curiosity at a diurnal bird flying around at night. That is not naturalistic at all. And I researched Pallas online & there was multiple definitions, one was definitely “warcraft”. The narrator, whether it’s Poe or not, does indeed over react to the bird, what else can you say if he’s thinking a common bird is a messenger from the underworld?
Poe did look into the reason why the bird was flying around at night. He had gotten cold (“it was in the bleak December”) and he went to the only place he found light and warmth (“and each seperate dying ember”). Have you even read “The Philosophy of Composition”? You shouldn’t try to analyze the poem until you do; all your questions about realism would be answered. And I never denied that the narrator was overreacting – only that Poe was. Poe knew exactly what he was writing. In this case, he was writing about a regular every day raven (NOT a bird of ill omen) who is granted supernatural symbolic powers by the NARRATOR. In fact, the narrator attempts to be logical (“surely what it utters is its only stock and store”) but then he loses it and starts assigning it heavenly/demonic powers. It’s not the bird itself that’s the problem, it’s the narrator. So, yes, he’s overreacting. That’s the whole point of the poem!
There are some fantastic comments here. I’ve said earlier that I love this poem and the repeated lines add to the sense of something sinister. Who hasn’t gotten scared on a dark night and thought innocent sounds were sinister – the tree scratching on a window is some dead person scratching to get inside and get you.
I easily give myself up the the feel of this poem and just live in the words, accepting what Poe was showing. I’ve seen far less believable stuff on TV, that’s for sure. Jackie, it’s all about suspension of disbelief first then analysis second, if you want. But live the poem first and feel what it wants you to feel.