'The Raven' poem

Last updated: 15/11/2023
Contributor: Teachit team
'The Raven' complete text
Main Subject
Key stage
Category
Poetry: Understanding a poem
Resource type
Worksheet
Author
Edgar Allan Poe
Genre
Gothic
Title
The Raven
Free

This is a free, printable PDF version of the complete text of the celebrated Gothic narrative poem, 'The Raven' by Edgar Allan Poe (1845), for English teachers to download.

Students can annotate this version of the poem, or work with it in groups to analyse different stanzas, and explore some of the compelling poetic techniques (such as alliteration) that Poe uses.

Students might also wish to consider the powerful ABCBBB rhyme scheme which adds to the horror as the persona reveals the poem’s ‘story’, and his use of Gothic vocabulary and emotive, sensory diction to create the chilling atmosphere of the poem.

As a lovely first reading activity to consolidate their understanding, you might also want students to create a storyboard for each stanza. 

If you are looking for more Gothic lesson activities or a complete scheme of learning, including PowerPoint lessons on this poem, try our KS3 Gothic teaching pack.

Example stanzas from this extraordinary Gothic poem:

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 someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door -

“’Tis some visitor,” 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.

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating

“’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-

This it is and nothing more. “

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