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| | The Poe Decoder - "The Raven" |
 | | The man welcomes the raven, and is afraid that the raven will be gone in the morning, "as [his] Hopes have flown before"; however, the raven answers, "Nevermore." The man smiled, and pulled up a chair, interested in what the raven "meant in croaking, ‘Nevermore.’" The chair, where Lenore once sat, brought back painful memories. |
 | | In "The Raven" it is important that the answers to the questions are already known, to illustrate the self-torture to which the narrator exposes himself. |
 | | Poe also considered a parrot as the bird instead of the raven; however, because of the melancholy tone, and the symbolism of ravens as birds of ill-omen, he found the raven more suitable for the mood in the poem (Poe, 1850). |
| www.poedecoder.com /essays/raven (1483 words) |
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