Classic Book Reader
Cover of The Raven

The Raven

by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)

  • Free to read
  • 5 min read
  • Reading level: 7th grade

"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe is a narrative poem first published in January 1845. It tells of a grief-stricken lover mourning his lost Lenore when a mysterious raven arrives at his chamber, perching on a bust of Pallas and speaking only one haunting word: "Nevermore." As the narrator questions the bird, he descends from melancholy into madness, trapped between his desire to forget and his compulsion to remember, while the raven's shadow darkens his soul.

Read free now No app, no sign-up. Your place is saved automatically. Or download for your e-reader ↓
  • Ravens
  • Fantasy poetry, American

Read the opening

The Raven

by

Edgar Allan Poe

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 visiter,” 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 borrow
From 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.

Keep reading The Raven →

Download for your e-reader

Files are provided by Project Gutenberg. On a Kindle, the simplest route is to send the EPUB with Amazon’s Send to Kindle. Downloaded copies don’t sync with your place on Classic Book Reader.

About this edition

This free edition of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #1065, released 1997-10-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Poetry, Classics of Literature, American Literature.

Other editions: eBook #17192.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

More by Edgar Allan Poe