My Personal Understanding of “The Raven”
This is just the first, rough version of what I'm working on; a personal understanding of Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven." It's not finished. I want to know what people think so far.
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'"
He’s weak and weary because he’s been up late, trying to distract his mind with his books from his sorrowful thoughts of his dead beloved Lenore.
"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore."
The dying embers represent a dying light or warmth; the death of Lenore, but also of his own joy.
"And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more.'"
The curtains represent the curtains of death or the underworld. The chamber door, in a sense, stands for the way into the underworld. The rustling of the curtains, represents the hope of his lost love stirring from the underworld...as if to imply the sense of her returning from the underworld to him through those curtains. That is why he became both thrilled, and terrified.
""Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'
Merely this and nothing more.""
His experience here, is like this: he opens the door wide, hoping that his lost love Lenore has come, but he sees only darkness. At first, this seems to confirm for him that it was nothing; no one is there. But, with still some ember of hope, he whispers, “Lenore,” and, as if some spirit had come, he hears the whisper echo back. This is a deeply emotional and mystical experience. But he’s still uncertain, and continues to reassure himself that nothing is at his door.
"Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'"
His soul is burning, like those dying embers. This signifies that some amount of hope, has been ignited in him, even though he reassures himself that nothing is there. But then he hears another tapping, and becomes more hopeful, and less assured that nothing is there.
"Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'"
Pallas was an ancient Greek god of war and wisdom, and was the teacher of Athena, (hence her being called “Pallas Athena”). Deities of war are closely connected with death, because they are takers of lives. But as a god of wisdom, it also makes sense that the raven lands on a bust of Pallas, because wisdom pertains to knowledge, scholarship, and study, which are the things that the narrator of the poem had been busy using to try and distract himself from his sorrow.
Pluto was the Roman god of the underworld. He was the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Hades. By “Plutonian shore,” he is referring to the shores of the underworld, or, the metaphorical shores of his own darkness.
"Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -
Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as `Nevermore.'
But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'"
His confrontation with this raven, symbolizes his confrontation with the sorrow he had been trying to distract himself from. So the raven’s words, reflect his own feelings back to him.
"Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
`Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of "Never-nevermore."'
But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!"
He begins to doubt again. He doubts the raven’s answer has any meaning. He tells himself the raven does not even understand its own words; it is merely repeating the words of some sad or darkened master. But the raven still “beguiles” or enchants him to smile, despite his sorrow, and some glimmer of hope still endures. His curiosity leads him to draw closer to the raven, and contemplate more. When he says “she shall press, ah, nevermore!” he is talking about Lenore. But drawing closer, pulling up the cushion that was once “pressed” or sat upon, he realizes she, Lenore, will no no longer, or “nevermore,” sit upon. Basically, he begins trying to find some moral or message in the raven’s saying “Nevermore,” and as the surroundings in his chamber, (which symbolizes his isolation and loneliness), remind him further of Lenore, he attempts to use them as a lense through which he interprets the raven’s “message.” “Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore! Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore,'” means he cries out to himself, calling himself a wretch, to say to himself, “GOD has given you, by these angels, a potion of forgetfulness (a reference to Greek mythology) as a relief from his memories of Lenore.” In Greek mythology and medicine, “nepenthe” is a medicinal potion that is used to cure sorrow by inducing forgetfulness. So here, it is a metaphor for a relief from his memories of Lenore.
In The Odyssey, book four, verses 219-221, it mentions the nepenthe when it says, “Then Jove's daughter Helen bethought her of another matter. She drugged the wine with an herb that banishes all care, sorrow, and ill humour. Whoever drinks wine thus drugged cannot shed a single tear all the rest of the day, not even though his father and mother both of them drop down dead, or he sees a brother or a son hewn in pieces before his very eyes. This drug, of such sovereign power and virtue, had been given to Helen by Polydamna wife of Thon, a woman of Egypt, where there grow all sorts of herbs, some good to put into the mixing-bowl and others poisonous. Moreover, every one in the whole country is a skilled physician, for they are of the race of Paeeon.” The original Greek text uses the word νηπενθές, “nipenthes.” These verses shall help readers understand Edgar Allan Poe’s use of the word. In that part of the Odyssey, the characters gathered are discussing their sorrow over the deaths of people they loved, and in response, Helen chooses to spike their wine with nepenthe to help them forget their sorrows.
I don’t think it is a mere coincidence that Edgar Allan Poe references the nepenthe potion AND points out that the raven perches upon the Greek god Pallas, (or possibly, the goddess Pallas Athena). The war between the Greeks and the Trojans was fought because one of the Trojans had kidnapped Helen and brought her to troy. She was stolen from her beloved husband, and a war ensued. I think, when Edgar describes the “tempest,” i.e. the tumultuous storm, happening outside of his chamber, it may to some extent be a symbolic reference to the Trojan War. Thus, Helen symbolizes his beloved Lenore, who was taken from him. Therefore the Trojan War symbolizes the emotional tumult of his sorrow. I might even wager, that the “forgotten lore” he refers to in the beginning, is probably the Iliad and the Odyssey.
"Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee
Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore?'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -
`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!"
Seraphim are six-winged angels that serve close to GOD. The air thickening from an unseen censer, seems to imply a ritual or religious incense-wafting, such as what priests do in prayer services for the dead, or in church rites, or, in demonic exorcisms, and such things. The raven’s name is “Nevermore,” and the raven never leaves. The raven symbolizes his sorrow over the death of Lenore, its staying symbolizes the fact that his sorrow will forever haunt him.
Summary:
A man has suffered the death of a beloved woman Lenore. In his darkness and sorrow, he has isolated himself in loneliness, and has tired himself out studying to try and distract himself from the tumultuous sorrow he suffers from. But the sorrow finds a way to catch his attention, and he lets it in. As he does so, he is forced to acknowledge his memories of Lenore, and he is forced to face his sorrow. But even in his deep sorrow, he still has some glowing, although dying, embers of hope.