Here, Poe used his theme to compose a character. The protagonist would be a man who lost his lover and has not yet stopped mourning over his beloved. The character's pain was only increased through interaction with the bird, which consistently repeated a single word (Halliburton 1). Poe further developed this by confining the man to his bedroom where everything around him reminded him of his lost lover. Poe then started to develop the body of his poem, keeping in mind the ideas he wanted to represent. Poe introduced a "rapping" (Macdonald 77) that drove the man crazy as he desired to see his beloved again. Soon, Poe intensified the insanity of the character with the raven, by making the man believe the raven was actually answering his questions. As the protagonist believed the monotonous raven, he grew more frustrated and saddened at the reality that he would never see his beloved again. As Braddy wrote, "the refrain" of the raven "--'Nevermore'-- mirrored despair perfectly" (10). Poe still kept every occurrence in his poem within "the limits of the real" (Thompson 100).By skillfully and systematically writing The Raven, Poe proved that a poem could be popular by critics and the public, simultaneously. The great poet appealed to the critics and the sophisticated with the poem's hidden meanings and by following his method. Poe attracted the public's attention because everyone could relate to the pain of a bereaved lover. In order for a poem to be effective, Poe believed that it cannot be too short or too long. With either extreme, the effectiveness of the tale is greatly diminished. (Jacobs 436-443) Poe's diction played a major role throughout The Raven. Choosing the perfect words, such as "nevermore," was vital to the development of The Raven. Without the words he had chosen, Poe most likely would have lost a great amount of effect to his poem. Diction had a major part in creating the atmosphere, or mood, of the poem....
