"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping-(p1518) In Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, The first two stanzas of this story we are introduce to the narrator, and his beloved maiden Lenore. You find him sitting on a "dreary" and dark evening with a book opened in front of him, although he is nodding off more than reading, while suddenly, he hears knocking on his door, but he only believes it to be a visitor coming to see him, not pondering what it really was. He remembers another night, like this one, where he had sought the comfort of his library as to forget his sorrows of his long lost beloved maiden Lenore, and to wait for the approach of dawn. Meanwhile the tapping on his door continues. The Raven, Poe's most famous poem begins with descriptions that immediately brings the reader into a dark, cold, and stormy night. Poe does not wish for his readers to stand on the sidelines and watch the goings on, but actually be in the library with the narrator, hearing what he hears and seeing what he sees, and feeling what he feels. Using words and phrases such as "midnight dreary" and "bleak December" Poe sets the mood and tone, by wanting his readers to feel the atmosphere the narrator is in.
The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe is a very famous writing, especially for its use of symbology. The most obvious symbol is the Raven its self. Poe uses the non-reasoning raven because he wants to make us wondering why he had chosen the raven from all the other birds, and frustrate us by wondering why the raven is repeating the word nevermore. The narrator is surprised to hear the bird speak and he thinks that no living human has ever had a bird just sit there and talk to him in understanding, and especially with such a name as Nevermore. This might be the point where the narrator realizes that he is dying, and the raven is the deliverer.