The poem, The Raven, tells the bleak tale of a man's decent into a deep depression. The raven, which I think is either a metaphor and/or a delusion, seems to be a manifestation of sorrow. The man in the poem has lost his true love, Lenore, and although he tries to occupy his mind with his books, the raven incessantly croaks the word "Nevermore" as a constant reminder of his loss. His subconscious is forever returning to thoughts of his heartbreak. The raven, an expression of his inner thoughts, taunts him to a point of woebegone madness. This contradicts Transcendentalism because the Transcendentalists thought that your inner voice was the voice of God. Something makes me doubt that God would be feeding you the cheerless word "Nevermore" repeatedly until you were too grief-stricken to go on. "'Other friends have flown before-- On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before' Then the bird said 'Nevermore'"
When the raven enters into the chamber, he immediately perches on a bust of Athena, "Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door - Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door" Athena/Pallas is the goddess of wisdom. Wisdom was a virtue greatly admired by the Transcendentalists, and I think that Poe was using Athena/Pallas as the bust that the raven sat on with a purpose. Since the Transcendentalists put wisdom and thought on such a high pedestal, Poe puts his miserable raven on top of Pallas, as if to squash wisdom out. The man in the poem becomes so consumed with his grief that he lashes out at a bird that might not even exist; "'Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting - 'Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!' Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.'" The man's wisdom is replaced with anguish as logical though gives way to the persistant agony of his broken heart. "And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, Shall be lifted - nevermore!"
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