The Meanings of the Raven Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" employs a raven itself as a symbol of the torture, mainly the self-inflicted torture, of the narrator over his lost love, Lenore. The raven, it can be argued, is possibly a figment of the imagination of the narrator, obviously distraught over the death of Lenore. The narrator claims in the first stanza that he is weak and weary (731). He is almost napping as he hears …showed first 75 words of 1296 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1296 total…and take thy form from off my door," he pleads. But the raven will not go. The raven will sit above the narrator's door every day for eternity to remind the narrator that he cannot understand death. And left under the shadow the raven casts on the floor is the soul of the narrator that shall be lifted-nevermore! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** McMichael, George, et al. Anthology of American Literature, 7th ed., vol. 1. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2000.