Lost Lenore Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A raven is a dark and mysterious bird, and in this poem a raven visits a man with a message. Edgar Allan Poe’s â€Å"The Raven† is about a man who is having a mental breakdown because of the death of a dear friend. The narrator presents a frightening and sad setting, while throughout the poem, talking about his dear friend Lenore, who has passed away. Later, the mysterious figure of the Raven is introduced as he appears in the narrator’s chamber. Puzzled and terrified by the appearance of this dark vision, the narrator questions his guest in various ways to find out the meaning of his visit. No matter what the narrator asks, the Raven has only one eerie reply.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The narrator describes his frightening and sad surroundings, which reflect his state of mind caused by the death of his dear friend. The narrator opens his sad tale with â€Å"Once upon a midnight dreary† and later offers, â€Å"it was in the bleak December.† He describes his chamber as containing â€Å"many quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore† and his fireplace as â€Å"each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.† With such images as the old musty books and the dying fire, a mood is set that represents the lonely and frightened state of mind of the narrator. Later, he sees curtains moving without a window open, and hears someone tapping on his chamber door. We begin to see that the narrator is losing touch with reality because he is deeply depressed by of the ...