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Figurative Language In The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe

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Edgar Allen Poe is a classic horror author/poet from around the 1800s. He wrote many famous short stories and poems, including The Raven, a poem about a lover lamenting over the loss of a girl named Lenore. In the poem the narrator hears a soft knock at the door, but no one is there. Then again, a tapping on the window. He shakes it off as the wind, but when he opens the window a raven flies in and perches on his chamber door, and allegedly answers the narrator’s questions about his lost love. The meaning of the poem is mysterious and uneasy; through sound devices and figurative language, Poe was able to create this creepy meaning, and keep readers on edge. Poe used several sound devices to create the meaning in his poem. For example, repetition can be found in each stanza …show more content…

By repeating certain eerie phrases and language, it attracted the reader’s attention and made them feel more apprehensive about what could happen next. One word that the raven repeats at the end of each stanza, after each question asked of him, is “nevermore”. At first the narrator thinks it is the name of the bird, but as he keeps asking it more personal questions, the words takes on more deeper meanings, and the tension of the poem increases. The narrator asks the bird if he will ever see Lenore again, even in life after death, and he is frightened when the bird of course replies “nevermore” each time, even when he asks the raven to go away. Each stanza, the tension grows more and more when the bird repeats the same word over again, and the tension creates a creepy mood that adds to the meaning. Internal/end rhyme is another means of establishing meaning in the poem. The

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