2. 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?

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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
Goes to the window, expecting wind

7. 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.”

8. 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.”

9. 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.)

10. 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.”

11. 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.

12. 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.”

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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?

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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)

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

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

23. 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