“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is a dark reflection on lost love, death and the loss of hope. This poem dramatizes the emotions of the poet, who has lost his beloved and tries in vain to distract himself from sadness by studying books. However, the books do little to help him and a single visitor, a Raven, disturbs his solitude. Throughout the poem, Poe uses symbolism, imagery, and tone to reinforce his theme of sadness and loss. Additionally, through assonance, alliteration, rhyme, and repetition, the poem achieves a melodic level that almost feels like singing when read aloud! I am captivated by the new perspective that Poe has brought to my attention on death. While the theme of death is usually associated with sympathy or horror, Poe managed to depict a feeling caught in between. “In the depths of that darkness, I stood there for a long time wondering, afraid to doubt, dreaming dreams that no mortal had ever dared to dream before; » (Poe, 789). Poe communicated this poem using abstract language and connotation. The abstract phrase repeated throughout the poem is the word “Nevermore” combined with “The Plutonian shore of night…” (Poe, 791). This phrase is repeated several times in the poem and the narrator uses it to address the bird. The word "Plutonian" is used as an adjective referring to Pluto (Roman God of the Underworld, or in other words, Hell). Hell can be directly associated with death, and even more so with eternal suffering. Hell, according to the Roman Catholic Church, is the place where souls burn eternally once they die. Therefore, the above quote is an allusion that Poe used to express the eternal sorrow left after the death of a loved one. “Drink, oh drink this sweet nepenthe, and forget the lost Lenore” (Poe, 790). Here the allusion expressed in the word “nepenthe,” a Greek word meaning “medicine for sorrow.” The narrator begs for the “drug to