In a Nutshell: The audio version helped me crack a classic poem! Enjoyed it way more than I expected. (This isn’t an insult to Poe, but an honest comment about my – Ahem! – outstanding poetic sensibilities.)

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I am not a staunch fan of verse. This logical head much prefers to read stories in prose then in poem form. I do love a few poems, but I am very much a traditionalist in my choices. Free verse makes my head spin. Rhymes and repetitions make a poem a “poem’ in my eyes.

‘The Raven’ was not at all on my reading radar. To be honest, I have attempted it twice in the last couple of years, but my brain is so anti-verse that the moment it sees lengthy poems, it goes a-wandering after the threshold limit is crossed. Any poem that extends beyond 15-20 lines gives me palpitations. However, a retelling based on this poem is present in the anthology I am currently reading, and I like to be familiar with the source material when I read retellings. Hence the brave decision of checking this out.

When I looked for a free version online (the poem is in the public domain, being originally published in January 1845), I stumbled upon Wikipedia, which, to my surprise and relief, featured an audio recording of this poem. I thus decided to try immersion reading - audio in the ears and text in front of the eyes - to coerce my brain into cooperating, and this idea worked brilliantly!

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 poetic smartness evident in this para should immediately make you realise that I didn’t write it. I copied it from Wiki so that I remember in future what a long poem I read! ( )

Independent Reading Level: 6th-12th grade.
Awards: N/A

Really wonderful.

Instead of "Lenore," the main character gets the Raven who repeats, "Nevermore."

Sometimes I'm slow to pick up on symbolism and other literary devices and simply appreciate the story for its mood and more direct meanings. However, "The Raven" lets even someone as straightforward as me appreciate it for what it is: the narrator hopes in vain that the rapping at his doors and windows are those of Lenore, or the wind, but instead a Raven moves in and in response to all his verbalized hopes, "Nevermore." Sometimes things in life are simply gone.

Meanwhile, I don't see why the protagonist isn't excited to have a stoic new roommate. Sounds like he sticks around. ( )

I loved it. I definitely am not a poetry lover but I really got this poem and understood it right away. The word choice, rhyme, pacing, mood were truly imaginative and intelligent. ( )