When the raven comes into the narrator's room in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," the man asks it what its name is, not expecting an answer. The raven croaks, "Nevermore." The narrator discounts the idea that this could be the bird's name. He asserts its "answer little meaning—little relevancy bore." The narrator is confident that no human being has ever been blessed with seeing a bird named Nevermore perched on a sculpture in his room....
When the raven comes into the narrator's room in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," the man asks it what its name is, not expecting an answer. The raven croaks, "Nevermore." The narrator discounts the idea that this could be the bird's name. He asserts its "answer little meaning—little relevancy bore." The narrator is confident that no human being has ever been blessed with seeing a bird named Nevermore perched on a sculpture in his room. However, this does not mean that no human being has ever before seen a raven elsewhere with the name of Nevermore. The man goes on to try to imagine how the bird learned its one word that was "its only stock and store." He believes the bird's master may have had so much ill fortune that he was always crying "Nevermore!" and the bird picked it up. However, it could be the case that its master named it Nevermore and called it by its name repeatedly until the bird learned to say the word. So, although the poem's narrator does not believe the bird is really named Nevermore, there is no way to know whether it is or isn't since we haven't been given the bird's backstory.
No comments:
Post a Comment