Because of its black color, the raven it is associated with the ideas of origin, beginning, when darkness reigned, before God created light ("mother's night, primal darkness, fertile soil"). Because of its aerial nature, the raven is associated with "heaven", the creative and demiurgic power, the spiritual forces. For its flight, it is related to the messenger. For all these reasons, in many primitive peoples, the raven seems invested with great cosmic significance.
The first time the raven responds "Nevermore" is answering the question of what its name is, and although it seems an incoherent answer (to the lyrical self and the reader) it is not; since that is the raven, the materialization of the irreversible, of what "nevermore" will be. This is deepening so much that the last "Nevermore" will cut off all possibility of dialogue, will destroy the interlocutor definitively.
"With great panache and flutter", "august raven of the sacred days", "with superb attitude", "the ebony bird", "frightening, grim, old raven", "wandering from the bosom of the night"," the deadly bird of other times "," with its furious eyes "," creature of evil! always prophet, bird or devil ": the self-resorts to a series of adjectives and nouns that allude to the SACRED character, SUPERIOR of the raven, but at the same time UNGRATTERED for the self. Each time he refers to the Raven, he does so by pointing out some of its characteristics that confirm it as a symbol of the annihilation of his soul.
Some of the metaphors in the Raven poem are:
1. "ebony bird" = METAPHOR that alludes to its black color and, therefore, advances its dismal character.
2. "in this barren land of enchantment", "in this dwelling that inhabits the horror" = METAPHOR that alludes to the uselessness of having hope in this earth, in this life, because it will not be able to leave its pain, the earth, life is "barren" = "sterile" to offer relief.
3. "remove my beak from my heart" = METAPHOR that refers to its beak that the bird does damage, because as a scavenger bird it is, it eats with its beak dead meat, if the bird has its beak on its heart, means that this is already dead, otherwise the raven does not come near who still lives. It is because of the beak that with its squawking has just destroyed the self, it shattered its heart with the words that sprang from its beak.
