Sunday, May 31, 2009

With what emotion does the speaker first greet the raven in "The Raven"?

The moment
when the speaker meets the Raven occurs towards the middle of the poem, specifically in the
following two stanzas:

Open here I flung the shutter,
when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly
days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon
a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.


Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it
wore.

"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said,
"art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly
shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."


Basically, the words "beguiling my sad fancy into smiling by the grave and stern
decorum of the countenance it wore" mean that the speaker feels curious at the
"attitude" of the raven, and it makes him laugh (or smirk, smile) how the raven looks
so serious, dignified, and regal considering that he is "just a bird".


Therefore, the emotions that the speaker first feels when he greets the raven are
curiosity, mixed with a bit of empathy, if not sympathy, for this animal who chose to enter his
home only to look down on him as if he were a bringer of something
supernatural.

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