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Posted by Nuwi on April 27, 192004 at 16:24:53:
In Reply to: The RAven?? posted by Ryan on December 10, 192001 at 23:36:13:
Summary:
During a cold, dark evening in December, a man is attempting to find some solace from the remembrance of his lost love, Lenore, by reading volumes of "forgotten lore." As he is nearly overcome by slumber, a knock comes at his door. Having first believed the knock to be only a result of his dreaming, he finally opens the door apologetically, but is greeted only by darkness. A thrill of half-wonder, half-fear overcomes the speaker, and as he peers into the deep darkness, he can only say the word "Lenore." Upon closing the door, another knock is immediately heard from the chamber's window. The narrator throws open the shutter and window, and in steps a large, beautiful raven, which immediately posts itself on the bust of Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, above the entrance of the room. Amused by the animal, the speaker asks it its name, to which the bird replies "Nevermore." Believing "Nevermore" to be the raven's name, the narrator's curiosity is piqued, but the speaker believes the name to have little relevancy to his question, for he had never before heard of any man or beast called by that name. Although the bird is peaceful, the narrator mutters to himself that it, like all other blessings of his life, will soon leave him. Again the bird replies "Nevermore." Intrigued, the speaker pulls a chair up directly before the bird to more readily direct his attention on the wondrous beast, and to figure out the meaning of the bird's single monotonous reply. While in contemplation in the chair, the speaker's mind turns to Lenore, and how her frame will never again bless the chair in which he now reposes. Suddenly overcome with grief, the persona believes that the raven is a godsend, intended to deliver him from his anguish, but again comes the bird's laconic reply. The speaker then viciously rebukes the bird, calling it now to be a "thing of evil," and asks it whether there is "balm in Gilead," a biblical reference to respite in a land riven with suffering. Again, the word "nevermore" is the only answer. Shouting maniacally now, demanding that the bird take its leave, the narrator attempts to dispatch the bird back to the "Plutonian shore" of Hell from whence it came. The bird, "the emblem of Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance," replies again "nevermore," and sits there on the bust of Pallas to this day, ever a torment to the speaker's soul, and a reminder of his lost love.
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