Edgar Allan Poe wrote an essay entitled “The Philosophy of Composition”. In this dissertation, Poe described the creation and work involved in composing his well-known literary masterpiece, “The Raven”. In “The Philosophy of Composition,” Poe stated that his design was to make “The Raven” “universally appreciable”, so that the public, as well as the critics would share a strong appreciation of his work (Poe, 1850). While “The Raven” is quite possibly Poe’s most disturbing tale, not so much because of images of grief or despair, but because of the haunting way the reader starts to feel the inner turmoil of the narrator, it is renowned as one of the greatest symbolic masterpieces of American Poetry.

“The Raven” is about a man who lost his true love and tries to ease the pain or “sorrow for the lost Lenore” (DiVanni, 721), by reading old books to keep his mind occupied. He is interrupted from his napping, by what he says is a "tapping on my chamber door" (D

Another symbol is the bust of Pallas that the raven is perched on throughout most the poem. It is possible that the bird rest on that statue because Pallas is the Greek goddess of wisdom. Thus, whatever the raven stated is judged correct (Nilsson, 1998). Poe states that another reason for using “Pallas” deals with the “sonorousness of the word, Pallas itself” (Poe 1850).

As in many of Poe's works, there are several symbols in “The Raven”. These symbols are used to take the work to a higher level. The first and most noticeable symbol is the raven itself. The raven is established as a symbol for the narrator’s sorrowful memories, “And my soul from out that shadow, that lies floating on the floor, shall be lifted- nevermore!” (DiYanni, 724). When Poe decided to have the phrase "Nevermore" repeated to the narrator throughout his questioning, he found that it would work best to use an animal because, unlike humans, animals are non-reasoning. A human could answer the man's ongoing questions with full statements. Poe had c

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