<P> "The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe . First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere . It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness . The lover, often identified as being a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore . Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references . </P> <P> Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically, intending to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes, as he explained in his 1846 follow - up essay, "The Philosophy of Composition". The poem was inspired in part by a talking raven in the novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of' Eighty by Charles Dickens . Poe borrows the complex rhythm and meter of Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship", and makes use of internal rhyme as well as alliteration throughout . </P> <P> "The Raven" was first attributed to Poe in print in the New York Evening Mirror on January 29, 1845 . Its publication made Poe widely popular in his lifetime, although it did not bring him much financial success . The poem was soon reprinted, parodied, and illustrated . Critical opinion is divided as to the poem's literary status, but it nevertheless remains one of the most famous poems ever written . </P> <P> Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore--While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door . "' Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--Only this and nothing more ." </P>

Who is the raven in the poem the raven