College and Career Readiness

Anchor StandardsKey Ideas and Details

Grades 6-12

Grades 6-12

Key Ideas and Details Read closely to determine what text says explicitly.

Make logical inferences from text.

Cite specific textual examples when writing or speaking to support conclusions from text.

Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development

Summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

Analyze how and why individuals, events and ideas develop and interact over course of text

Character Development

The Raven- E.A. Poe4 different stanzas

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.”’ Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—Only this, and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.Eagerly I wished the morrow:—vainly I had sought to borrowFrom my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—Nameless here for evermore.

But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke onlyThat one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.Nothing further then he uttered – not a feather then he fluttered – Till I scarcely more than muttered "Other friends have flown before – On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."Then the bird said "Nevermore."

"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting—"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

Reading Standards Applied

The text explicitly states that this person hears a rapping at his door at midnight.

Logical Inference- He is scared that someone is outside. Conclusions from text the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

shows that he is uncertain the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Central Themes and Analysis

•The theme is a person who dwells on grief is the cause of his own mental anguish.

•The speaker becomes increasingly irrational as the poem continues knowing that no matter what he asks the answer is "nevermore."

Idea Development The Raven Symbol Analysis

Not only is it the title of the poem, but even once we've heard all about Lenore, and the guy in his chamber, it's probably the image of the Raven that sticks most in our minds. It was a pretty great choice on Poe's part, a bird that looks like a part of the black night it came out of, a little scary looking, but also hard to read. The Raven is everywhere in this poem, but we'll hit a few key moments here.

Lines 38-40: The Raven's big entrance. Notice how much emphasis Poe puts on the way he comes into the room. The image we get is of a king or a queen walking into a throne room. He mentions that the Raven is "stately" and he also says that its "mien" (its way of acting) is like that of a "lord or lady.”

Line 45: This quick reference to a shorn crest is an allusion to a medieval tradition. Sometimes when a knight behaved in a cowardly (craven) way, he would have his head shaved to humiliate him. This reference creates an even stronger link between the raven and an old world of kings and queens and knights.

Idea DevelopmentLenore Symbol AnalysisThis particular lady is the main focus of the speaker's obsessive thoughts. He brings her up constantly, and even when he tries to think about something else, he always ends up back at Lenore. Despite this, we don't actually learn that much about her. We don't hear what she looks like or how she is related to our speaker (wife? girlfriend? sister?). She's an idea, a memory, but she never really becomes a full-fledged character.Lines 10-11: Here's where we first hear Lenore's name. At almost the same moment, we hear that she is lost; it doesn't take us long to figure out that she is dead, since only the angels know her name now. We should also point out a major technique in the poem that shows up here. When the first sounds of two words begin with the same sound, as in "rare and radiant" (line 11), we call it alliteration. Poe uses it like it's going out of style. Once you start looking, you'll see it everywhere in this poem.

Character Development

Near the end of this poem, when the fear of the poem’s speaker has reached a level of near hysteria, he shouts “Leave my loneliness unbroken!” In one sense, this could just be an emotional outburst, like the lines that lead up to it, but the interesting thing about this particular line is that the speaker, in his terror, is for once reflecting upon himself. This, and the line’s location at the climax of the poem, indicates to us that “my loneliness” is not just another expression that he shrieks: it is the key, the secret...