Key learning points

1. The poem is about a man who is visited by a foreboding raven, in the night.
2. In the poem, the raven symbolises death and the speaker’s grief.
3. Poe presents the narrator as griefstricken; he has perhaps been influenced by the tragedy in his own life.
4. The poem links to the Gothic through the dark, isolated setting.
5. The poem links to the Gothic through its portrayal of a speaker, in a state of heightened emotion.

Keywords

• Symbolism - a literary device where a noun represents an abstract quality

• Turbulent - confused and disordered

• Entreat - to entreat someone is to beg them

• Myth - a traditional story, often about a fact of nature

• Melancholy - a long lasting feeling of deep sadness

Common misconception