The Raven Questions

Describe the setting of the room?

Describe the speaker

What does the narrator expect to find when he opens the door?

What does he find instead?

What is his first reaction to the Raven?

When the Raven first says "Nevermore" what is the speaker's guess as to why?

What is his next guess as to why the Raven is saying "Nevermore" ?

The theme of the Raven is best described as the pain of_______________?

We can infer from the ending of the poem?

What does the Raven symbolize?

Which word in the first stanza is an example of onomatopoeia?

What does the speaker feel when he first thinks that Lenore may be at his door?

Paraphrase lines 55-56

List 3 verbs that show what the poem's narrator is doing in the first stanza

The narrator of the poem is sad because his lost love is dead. What is her name and how does he try to escape his sorrow?

What fills the narrator's heart with terror in stanza 3?

What does the narrator see when he first opens the chamber door (stanza 4)?

In stanza 7, the Raven flies into the narrator's chamber, where does the Raven perch?

What is the Raven's only answer to the narrator's questions?

In stanza 12, the narrator sits down in front of the raven, what is the narrator thinking as he looks at the bird?

As the poem progresses, the narrator becomes more and more furious with the raven. Why does he become so angry?

Where is the raven at the end of the poem (stanza 18)? What does the raven's presence tell the reader about the narrator's grief?

Edgar Allan Poe is famous for using symbolism in his stories and poetry. How could the raven be symbol in this poem? What clues does Poe give you to imply that the raven is a symbol rather than a little creature?

Poe is also famous for using allusions in his writing. Use your glossary of literary terms to define allusion. The find and write down two examples from "The Raven". Next to each example you provide, write down the type of allusion it is (literary, mythological, biblical, etc.).

How would you describe the atmosphere created by the setting? Which images in the beginning of the poem create this atmosphere?