The World of Letters

Abstract The Raven , written by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), was published in ‘’The New York Paper’’ in 1845. It is entirely the dominant sentiment of Poe’s life, the longing and regret for a beautiful love whom he had known. The poem consists of 18 six-line stanza, the first five-lines of each being in trochaic octameter, and the sixth line trochaic tetrameter. The rhythm is varied frequently, caused by effects of double rhyme and alliteration. The rhyme scheme is abcbb, wherein the b rhymes are based on the constant refrain, Nevermore, which are merged in Poe’s favourite theme of grief occasioned by the death of a beautiful woman, and the sonorous sound of the ‘’o’’ and ‘’r’’ in the refrain itself. The poem contains salient qualities of Romanticism. The poet, steeped in melancholy memories of a lost love, is haunted by the death in the guise of a raven. With the learned imaginative literature, The Raven has taken rank over the whole world, especially in the American Conti...