Short Answer Think about this question as we read: What is the speaker’s main conflict? What is the mood of this poem? How does the speaker’s tone towards the raven change throughout the poem?

TP-CASTT, “The Raven” T-Title: Ravens bring to mind… ____________________ Black is associated with negativity/evil Humans have watched birds for signs for years, e.g. _____________ (Look for these things as we read

P-Paraphrase (Put in your own words; does not mean shorten/summarize necessarily) Stanza 1: Midnight (dark) Speaker is reading/napping in his room Hears a knocking/gets annoyed/thinks it’s a visitor Stanza 2: December (cold) Wants day to be over—tries to escape his sadness through books Sad b/c he lost the beautiful Lenore

P-Paraphrase Stanza 3: The curtain shifts b/c of wind and scares speaker To reassure himself, he tells himself it’s just a visitor Stanza 4: He stops being scared Starts apologizing to the visitor Opens door Surprised to see only dark

P-Paraphrase Stanza 5: He looks into the darkness, starts scaring himself again. He whispers for Lenore, no answer (inference: ____________________________________) Stanza 6: He turns around, upset. Hears tapping again (@window) Goes to the window, expecting wind

The raven tricks (beguiles) the speaker into smiling: P-Paraphrase Stanza 7: Opens window A serious raven busts in, sits on bust (statue) of Athena (Greek goddess) Stanza 8: The raven tricks (beguiles) the speaker into smiling: The bird’s appearance is too serious (stern/grave) Speaker jokingly calls it a knight: “Though your feathers are shaved, you aren’t a coward/craven” (Knights were shaved when they were cowards) Asks the bird’s name Bird responds, “Nevermore.”

The raven tricks (beguiles) the speaker into smiling: P-Paraphrase Stanza 8: The raven tricks (beguiles) the speaker into smiling: The bird’s appearance is too serious (stern/grave) Speaker jokingly calls it a knight: “Though your feathers are shaved, you aren’t a coward/craven” (Knights were shaved when they were cowards) Asks the bird’s name Bird responds, “Nevermore.”

P-Paraphrase Stanza 9: The speaker is surprised to hear the bird speak so easily, even though he knows the answer (nevermore) probably means very little. It has never happened to anyone else to see a bird like this in his/her chamber. Stanza 10: However, the Raven only said “Nevermore” once…that is, until the speaker started talking again, saying, “My other friends have left me, so the bird will leave too.” The bird replies “Nevermore” (No, I won’t leave.)

P-Paraphrase Stanza 11: The speaker is again, surprised, trying to explain the bird’s speech: “Surely this is his only vocabulary word, learned from some previous sad owner who faced tragedies and constantly screamed/uttered the word ‘nevermore.’” Stanza 12: However, the Raven still tricks him into “smiling,” (i.e. distracts him from his depression. The speaker puts a pillow in front of the bird and starts pondering why he says “Nevermore.”

P-Paraphrase Stanza 11: The speaker is again, surprised, trying to explain the bird’s speech: “Surely this is his only vocabulary word, learned from some previous sad owner who faced tragedies and constantly screamed/uttered the word ‘nevermore.’” Stanza 12: However, the Raven still tricks him into “smiling,” (i.e. distracts him from his depression. The speaker puts a pillow in front of the bird and starts pondering why he says “Nevermore.” In other words, he starts overanalyzing the bird.

P-Paraphrase Stanza 13: He continues overthinking; however, he’s not talking to the bird, who is now staring at him intensely. The pillow he’s leaning on reminds him of Lenore and how she’ll never be there again. Stanza 14: The speaker suddenly smells a perfume, thinking it’s from angels. He cries out (to himself), “You poor sad soul! God has loaned you, through these angels, rest and nepenthe (a mythical substance to make one forget). I should drink this to forget Lenore.” The Raven says, “No.”

Stanza 15: The speaker, getting angry, asks the bird: “Prophet! I don’t know if you’re sent from the devil or a storm, but can you tell me if there’s a balm (soothing substance) for me out there?” R: No

Stanza 16: The speaker is getting angrier Asks: “Prophet! Swear by God, tell me, will I ever hug Lenore again in heaven/paradise?” R: No

Stanza 17: Yelling, the speaker says: “Get out. You’re a liar. Go back to the storm or hell. Leave me in my loneliness.” R: No.

Stanza 18: Time has passed The Raven is still there His shadow takes over the room The speaker feels his soul is stuck in that shadow.

Connotation: Sound devices End rhyme Internal rhyme Onomatopoeia Alliteration Consonance Repetition (in general) All of the above control the pace of the poem (give the poem its jumpy/jittery feel) Refrain (repeated word/phrase) Emphasizes negative tone of poem and speaker’s conflict Why ask a bird these questions, knowing he’ll only say one thing?

Figurative language Allusions Personification Simile Metaphor Symbol Pallas=Athena, Tempter=Satan/Devil, Plutonian=Hades, Balm of Gilead, nepenthe (from the river Lethe) Personification The raven is thought to be intelligent, haughty, and spiteful Simile Throughout Metaphor Symbol The Raven represents the speaker’s never ending remembrance of Lenore

Attitude (Tone) Everything in this poem contributes to the melancholy tone Refrain (“Nevermore”) Choice of bird Setting/details/color Archaic word choices Sound/types of sound

Shifts Speaker goes from rational to delusional (Stanza ___) Tone shifts from depressed to angry (Stanza ____) Plot shifts Exposition: Rising action: Climax: Falling action: Resolution: Narrative poem, not a lyric poem (poem describing an emotion)

Themes What are some abstract nouns present in this poem? What complete sentences can we form?

Title Why is this an apt title? Why was it not named “Lenore”? Why was it focused on “The Raven”?

Short Answers What is the speaker’s main conflict? What is the tone of this poem? Point to multiple SMALL pieces of evidence; try to avoid use of long quotes. Rather, blend your own words with specific quoted words from the text, e.g.: The tone of the song “Firework” is hopeful. Using dreary metaphors at first, such as a “plastic bag” helplessly “drifting” in the wind, Perry’s song at first has a melancholy tone. However, in the chorus, the writer then pulls the reader out of that depression with the song’s central uplifting metaphor: a beaten person rising to become a “firework,” letting his or her “colors burst,” leaving spectators in “awe” like on “the fourth of July.” The angst-filled similes in the beginning bring the audience low, but only so that Perry’s more hopeful metaphors can bring them that much higher. Still use TS/CD/CM/CS or ABC, but make your CD/B part more specific