Summary

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe starts with an unnamed speaker who is sitting alone in his room on a December night, reading and on the verge of falling asleep. He is also thinking of a woman named Lenore, who is obviously dead and whom the speaker misses. As soon as he hears a tapping sound, the speaker opens the door, but there is no one outside. He realizes that the sound comes from outside his window and, when he goes to see what is happening, a raven flies into his room and sits above the door, on a bust of Pallas (the mythological Greek goddess Athena).

When the speaker asks the bird about its name, the raven only answers “Nevermore”. Amazed that the bird can speak, the speaker begins to think out loud; he states that the bird will leave him soon...