<P> "The Raven" follows an unnamed narrator on a dreary night in December who sits reading "forgotten lore" by a dying fire as a way to forget the death of his beloved Lenore . A "tapping at (his) chamber door" reveals nothing, but excites his soul to "burning". The tapping is repeated, slightly louder, and he realizes it is coming from his window . When he goes to investigate, a raven flutters into his chamber . Paying no attention to the man, the raven perches on a bust of Pallas above the door . </P> <P> Amused by the raven's comically serious disposition, the man asks that the bird tell him its name . The raven's only answer is "Nevermore". The narrator is surprised that the raven can talk, though at this point it has said nothing further . The narrator remarks to himself that his "friend" the raven will soon fly out of his life, just as "other friends have flown before" along with his previous hopes . As if answering, the raven responds again with "Nevermore". The narrator reasons that the bird learned the word "Nevermore" from some "unhappy master" and that it is the only word it knows . </P> <P> Even so, the narrator pulls his chair directly in front of the raven, determined to learn more about it . He thinks for a moment in silence, and his mind wanders back to his lost Lenore . He thinks the air grows denser and feels the presence of angels, and wonders if God is sending him a sign that he is to forget Lenore . The bird again replies in the negative, suggesting that he can never be free of his memories . The narrator becomes angry, calling the raven a "thing of evil" and a "prophet". Finally, he asks the raven whether he will be reunited with Lenore in Heaven . When the raven responds with its typical "Nevermore", he is enraged, and, calling it a liar, commands the bird to return to the "Plutonian shore"--but it does not move . Presumably at the time of the poem's recitation by the narrator, the raven "still is sitting" on the bust of Pallas . The narrator's final admission is that his soul is trapped beneath the raven's shadow and shall be lifted "Nevermore". </P> <P> Poe wrote the poem as a narrative, without intentionally creating an allegory or falling into didacticism . The main theme of the poem is one of undying devotion . The narrator experiences a perverse conflict between desire to forget and desire to remember . He seems to get some pleasure from focusing on loss . The narrator assumes that the word "Nevermore" is the raven's "only stock and store", and, yet, he continues to ask it questions, knowing what the answer will be . His questions, then, are purposely self - deprecating and further incite his feelings of loss . Poe leaves it unclear if the raven actually knows what it is saying or if it really intends to cause a reaction in the poem's narrator . The narrator begins as "weak and weary," becomes regretful and grief - stricken, before passing into a frenzy and, finally, madness . Christopher F.S. Maligec suggests the poem is a type of elegiac paraclausithyron, an ancient Greek and Roman poetic form consisting of the lament of an excluded, locked - out lover at the sealed door of his beloved . </P>

What happens at the end of the raven by edgar allan poe
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