The Raven
"The Raven" [1845]
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
"The Raven" is a narrative poem by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow decent into madness.
Questions for Discussion
1. When was Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem The Raven first published?
A) 1856
B) 1880
C) 1830
D) 1845
2. What does the narrator first think of the raven?
A) He is scared.
B) He is intrigued.
C) He is angry that it won't leave.
D) He is happy that it takes his mind off Lenore.
3. What does the reader know is true about the narrator?
A) He is insane.
B) He was once engaged to Lenore.
C) He is afraid of ghosts.
D) He has had friends leave him.
4. What does the narrator order the raven to do in the second-to-last stanza?
A) leave
B) speak
C) stay
D) bring Lenore back
5. Which of the following does the narrator ask the raven?
A) Will you leave me tomorrow?
B) Who sent you?
C) Will I be reunited with Lenore?
D) Are you a bird or devil?
6. What is the narrator doing to forget his sorrows over losing Lenore?
A) napping
B) reading
C) drinking
D) nothing
7. How does the narrator first explain how the raven can talk?
A) The raven must be a spirit.
B) The raven is a prophet.
C). He must have misunderstood the raven.
D) A previous owner taught it to speak.
8. The phrase “the lamplight gloated o’er” is an example of what kind of figurative language?
A) personification
B) metaphor
C) hyperbole
D) simile
9. Which of the following statements best expresses the central idea of “The Raven”?
A) The raven will never leave the chamber.
B) The poet will grieve Lenore’s death forever.
C) The poet will never sleep again.
D) A talking raven is a symbol of madness.
10. The first line of each stanza
A) rhymes with the last line of the stanza.
B) rhymes with the third line of the stanza.
C) contains a rhyme with the last word of the line.
D) always ends with the word “nevermore.”
11. What happened to the narrator's love, Lenore?
A) She was killed.
B) She left him.
C) She committed suicide.
D) She died of unknown causes.
12. In lines 93 and 94, near the end of the poem, what does the narrator wish to know when he asks the Raven: “Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, / It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—”?
A) Will his poem be successful?
B) Does Lenore love him?
C) Will he meet Lenore in the afterlife?
D) Why has the Raven visited him?
13. Readers can infer from the poem’s conclusion that the speaker will—
A) die soon
B) never escape his despair
C) be reunited with Lenore
D) make his sorrow the subject of a great poem
14. The speaker can best be described as a—
A) lonely, elderly man longing for visitors
B) magician conjuring up evil spirits
C) poet seeking inspiration for a new work
D) melancholy person trying to forget a great tragedy
15. In the poem, the Raven most likely represents—
A) sorrow over the death of Lenore that the narrator will never be able to overcome
B) the memory of Lenore that the narrator will never be able to recover
C) the narrator’s soul, which will never achieve salvation
D) a wound in the body of the narrator that will never heal
16. Which of the following lines has internal rhyme?
A) “And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.”
B) “Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, . . .”
C) “By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, . . .”
D) “Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!”
17. In which quotation below are the underlined words an example of sound effects created by alliteration?
A) “And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,”
B) “Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!”
C) “Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, . . .”
D) “Till I scarcely more than muttered, “Other friends have flown before—”
18. Which of the underlined words or phrases in the lines below is an example of onomatopoeia?
A) “Darkness there and nothing more.”
B) “And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,”
C) “Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken”
D) “Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore—”
19. What does the word croaking suggest in the following lines: “What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore / Meant in croaking Nevermore’”?
A) eating
B) flying
C) dying
D) repeating