poe's symbol of mournful and never ending remembrance, as treated in the world famous poem, and poe's the philosophy of composition. His reason for dedicating his spare time to edgar allan poe is simply the love and respect he feels towards the author and his work. The former host of the poe decoder, has been available on the internet since late 1995, and was one of the first pages available on line to provide factual information on poe's life. The pages worked, and to some extent still work, as a gathering point for poe enthusiasts on the internet, and was christoffer's way into the poe community. the illustration and this text is copyright 1998, christoffer hallqvist. The text may not be published, on the internet, or elsewhere, without the author's permission. a lonely man tries to ease his sorrow for the lost lenore, by distracting his mind with old books of forgotten lore. Into the darkness he whispers, lenore, hoping his lost love had come back, but all that could be heard was an echo that murmured back the word 'lenore!' with a burning soul, the man returns to his chamber, and this time he can hear a tapping at the window lattice.

As he flung open the shutter, in there stepped a stately raven, the bird of ill omen poe, 1850. The raven perched on the bust of pallas, the goddess of wisdom in greek mythology, above his chamber door. The man asks the raven for his name, and surprisingly it answers, and croaks nevermore.

The man knows that the bird does not speak from wisdom, but has been taught by some unhappy master, and that the word nevermore is its only stock and store. The man welcomes the raven, and is afraid that the raven will be gone in the morning, as his hopes have flown before however, the raven answers, nevermore. The man smiled, and pulled up a chair, interested in what the raven meant in croaking, ‘nevermore.’ the chair, where lenore once sat, brought back painful memories. The man, who knows the irrational nature in the raven’s speech, still cannot help but ask the raven questions. Since the narrator is aware that the raven only knows one word, he can anticipate the bird's responses. Finally the man concedes, realizing that to continue this dialogue would be pointless. And his soul from out that shadow that the raven throws on the floor, shall be lifted nevermore! in this poem, one of the most famous american poems ever, poe uses several symbols to take the poem to a higher level.

When poe had decided to use a refrain that repeated the word nevermore, he found that it would be most effective if he used a non reasoning creature to utter the word. It would make little sense to use a human, since the human could reason to answer the questions poe, 1850. In the raven it is important that the answers to the questions are already known, to illustrate the self torture to which the narrator exposes himself. This way of interpreting signs that do not bear a real meaning, is one of the most profound impulses of human nature quinn, 1991. Poe also considered a parrot as the bird instead of the raven however, because of the melancholy tone, and the symbolism of ravens as birds of ill omen, he found the raven more suitable for the mood in the poem poe, 1850. Why did the raven decide to perch on the goddess of wisdom? one reason could be, because it would lead the narrator to believe that the raven spoke from wisdom, and was not just repeating its only stock and store, and to signify the scholarship of the narrator. Another reason for using pallas in the poem was, according to poe himself, simply because of the sonorousness of the word, pallas, itself poe, 1850.

A less obvious symbol, might be the use of midnight in the first verse, and december in the second verse. Both midnight and december, symbolize an end of something, and also the anticipation of something new, a change, to happen. The midnight in december, might very well be new year’s eve, a date most of us connect with change. This also seems to be what viktor rydberg believes when he is translating the raven to swedish, since he uses the phrase еrets sista natt var inne, the last night of the year had arrived . Kenneth silverman connected the use of december with the death of edgar’s mother silverman, 1991 , who died in that month whether this is true or not is, however, not significant to its meaning in the poem.

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The chamber in which the narrator is positioned, is used to signify the loneliness of the man, and the sorrow he feels for the loss of lenore. The room is richly furnished, and reminds the narrator of his lost love, which helps to create an effect of beauty in the poem. The tempest outside, is used to even more signify the isolation of this man, to show a sharp contrast between the calmness in the chamber and the tempestuous night. The phrase from out my heart, poe claims, is used, in combination with the answer nevermore, to let the narrator realize that he should not try to seek a moral in what has been previously narrated poe, 1850. Poe had an extensive vocabulary, which is obvious to the readers of both his poetry as well as his fiction. In the raven, the use of ancient and poetic language seems appropriate, since the poem is about a man spending most of his time with books of forgotten lore. seraphim , in the fourteenth verse, perfumed by an unseen censer / swung by seraphim whose foot falls tinkled.