<P> Poe may also have been drawing upon various references to ravens in mythology and folklore . In Norse mythology, Odin possessed two ravens named Huginn and Muninn, representing thought and memory . According to Hebrew folklore, Noah sends a white raven to check conditions while on the ark . It learns that the floodwaters are beginning to dissipate, but it does not immediately return with the news . It is punished by being turned black and being forced to feed on carrion forever . In Ovid's Metamorphoses, a raven also begins as white before Apollo punishes it by turning it black for delivering a message of a lover's unfaithfulness . The raven's role as a messenger in Poe's poem may draw from those stories . </P> <P> Nepenthe, a drug mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, erases memories; the narrator wonders aloud whether he could receive "respite" this way: "Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!" Poe also mentions the Balm of Gilead, a reference to the Book of Jeremiah (8: 22) in the Bible: "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" In that context, the Balm of Gilead is a resin used for medicinal purposes (suggesting, perhaps, that the narrator needs to be healed after the loss of Lenore). He also refers to "Aidenn", another word for the Garden of Eden, though Poe uses it to ask if Lenore has been accepted into Heaven . </P> <P> The poem is made up of 18 stanzas of six lines each . Generally, the meter is trochaic octameter--eight trochaic feet per line, each foot having one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable . The first line, for example (with / representing stressed syllables and x representing unstressed): </P> <Table> Syllabic structure of a verse <Tr> <Th> Stress </Th> <Td> / </Td> <Td> x </Td> <Td> / </Td> <Td> x </Td> <Td> / </Td> <Td> x </Td> <Td> / </Td> <Td> x </Td> <Td> / </Td> <Td> x </Td> <Td> / </Td> <Td> x </Td> <Td> / </Td> <Td> x </Td> <Td> / </Td> <Td> x </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Syllable </Th> <Td> Once </Td> <Td> up - </Td> <Td> on </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> mid - </Td> <Td> night </Td> <Td> drear - </Td> <Td> y, </Td> <Td> while </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> pon - </Td> <Td> dered </Td> <Td> weak </Td> <Td> and </Td> <Td> wear - </Td> <Td> y </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Meaning of the poem the raven by edgar allan poe