One of the most memorable things about Poe's "The Raven" is the repetition of the word "nevermore" at the end of nearly every stanza. The bird probably only knows that one word, but it becomes a symbol of death. The constant repetition of "nevermore" make it seem that death itself is not only inescapable but even the thought of death becomes inescapable as one gets older and the fact of death becomes more and more...
One of the most memorable things about Poe's "The Raven" is the repetition of the word "nevermore" at the end of nearly every stanza. The bird probably only knows that one word, but it becomes a symbol of death. The constant repetition of "nevermore" make it seem that death itself is not only inescapable but even the thought of death becomes inescapable as one gets older and the fact of death becomes more and more stark. What the speaker of the poem finds most terrible about the fact of death is that it obliterates everything in eternal darkness. He asks the bird if there is any possibility that he might be reunited with his dead loved one Lenore in some afterlife, and the bird pitilessly and relentlessly repeats the same one word "as if his soul in that one word he did outpour." When any loved one dies we are likely to be haunted by the thoughts of what we should have said to them, or not said to them, while they were still alive. In the end the speaker can neither console himself with the possibility of finding "balm in Gilead" (hope in the promises of the Bible) nor forget about the question altogether. The black bird refuses to leave and has nothing more to say.
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