There are three primary symbols in “The Raven”: the raven, the bust of Pallas, and the speaker’s chamber. All of these symbols work together to form a portrait of the speaker’s grief. The Raven The titular raven represents the speaker’s unending grief over the loss of Lenore.

The loneliness of the narrator—loneliness driven by his grief for the departed Lenore—is a central theme of “The Raven” and a key component of the Gothic mood. Poe uses the imagery of night’s darkness to establish this mood, further driving it home with the use of the aural imagery of silence and stillness and the whisper of “Lenore.”

Imagery is “a figure of speech of visual symbolism.” Poe uses imagery through the image of the raven. Its presence and the one symbolic word, which appears umpteen times throughout the poem, symbolizes death, questions of the supernatural, and the afterlife, not only literally but also figuratively.