The Raven A Poem by Edgar Allan Poe

The Raven A Poem by Edgar Allan Poe The poem features a mysterious bird that speaks only one word…

…a grieving narrator… … and a lost love.

The Basic Plot: A raven visits a distraught student who descends into madness. The student is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. The raven, sitting on a bust of Pallas, seems to further instigate the student’s distress by repeating one word, "Nevermore".

THE NARRATOR • A student who grieves for his dead love • He longs to be reunited with her in Heaven… • But obsesses over whether he will see her again • Wants to be left alone

THE RAVEN • Enters and won’t leave • Speaks one word to the narrator: “NEVERMORE” • The narrator at first sees him as a wise creature… but then believes that the Raven is evil for telling him that he will “NEVERMORE” be reunited with his lost love.

LENORE • Dead before the poem begins • The narrator has undying devotion and love for her; he misses her • Could she represent Poe’s wife who died 2 years before this was published?

POEM SUMMARY It is midnight on a cold evening in December in the 1840 s. In a dark and shadowy bedroom, a man laments the death of Lenore, a woman he deeply loved. To occupy his mind, he reads.

But a tapping noise disturbs him. When he opens the door to the bedroom, he sees nothing–only darkness. When the tapping continues, he opens the shutter of the window and discovers a raven.

The raven flies into the room and lands above the door on a statue of Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war in Greek mythology.

The Raven says only “Nevermore. ” Does the Raven mean the man he will never again ("nevermore") see his beloved, never again hold her– not even in heaven ?

Why won’t he be reunited with Lenore? Is the narrator not bound for heaven? Is he not meant to ever leave the room?

The Raven & the narrator’s placement when the story begins / ends. **The Raven has already landed when the poem begins. **

Symbols Raven: evil, mournful, unending rememberance Bust of Pallas: wisdom Winter / December: things coming to an end

TONE: Mournful / depressed MOOD: Eerie / creepy SUBJECT: Death THEME: If you don’t move on, you’re really stuck. / Love doesn’t die. / What we think is wise might be evil.

Remember… Poe chose to use a raven for a reason… Ravens are scary, dark, they don’t sing, & they haven’t been tamed as pets… not like…

The Raven Day 2 RL 8. 4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases… analyze their impact on tone and mood.

Literary devices Personification-the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form. Alliteration-the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words inter rhyme- a rhyme involving a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or in the middle of the next. external rhyme-is a pattern of words that rhyme on the “outside. ” edge of the poem

The Raven Day 3 RL 8. 4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases… analyze their impact on tone and mood.

The Raven • Focus on this question: How does the narrators mood change from the beginning to the end? • Cite text evidence from the poem on the back of your flipbook to answer this question. • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=s. XU 3 Rf. B 7308

The Raven Day 4 RL 8. 7 Analyze a film to show true it stays to the text

The Raven • Focus on this question: Was it different watching theatrical version compared to reading and listening to it? • How? • Answer these questions on the back of your flipbook in a paragraph • www. youtube. com/watch? v=0 K 6 -w. O 94 -6 I&t=599 s

The Raven Day 5 RL 8. 2 central idea RL 8. 4 determine the meaning of words and phrases… analyze their impact on mood and tone

The Raven Writing Task • You will be writing an alternative ending to the poem. • You must omit the last 2 stanzas and rewrite each. • You must follow the check list that you were given to receive all possible points. • This will be a project grade in Skyward and your final assessment over “The Raven”