Poetic Devices in
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”
 Poets use poetic or sound devices to give a musical quality to their writing.
 Sound devices please the ear and reinforce meaning by emphasizing key sounds, ideas,
words, or images.
 Poe’s use of these devices creates a hypnotic effect that draws us into the speaker’s
irrational world.
 We can see the world through the demented vision of the speaker.
____________the repeating of words or phrases for emphasis
____________ the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.
____________ the repetition of similar consonant sounds in the middle or end of words.
____________ occurs when rhyming words fall at the end of each line
____________ the repetition of vowel sounds in conjunction with dissimilar consonant
sounds (given distance).
____________ occurs when rhyming words fall within a line
____________the use of words that imitate sounds (hiss, buzz)
Examples from “The Raven”
alliteration –
assonance –
consonance –
internal rhyme –
repetition –
onomatopoeia –
End Rhyme -
“The Raven”
1. What is the setting of the poem? Include time and place.
2. How does the narrator initially react to the noise he hears outside his chamber door?
3. What is the cause of the narrator’s sadness?
4. How does the significance of the word nevermore change for the narrator each time the raven says
it? Why?
5. In your own words, write all of the questions that the narrator asks the raven. They do not always
appear in question form in the poem.
6. Will the narrator’s sadness ever go away? If yes, explain how or when.
7. What is the single effect that Poe creates from beginning to end of the poem?