It seems his feelings of grief and loss are set in stone because it just replies with a “nevermore”.

As he prepares himself to open the door of his insecurities and weaknesses to whatever awaits, he really has to push through his hesitation. At the beginning of the poem, he tries to distract himself from his sadness by reading a "volume of forgotten lore", but when the raven arrives, he immediately begins peppering it with questions about Lenore and becomes further lost in his grief at the raven's response of "nevermore.

The Balm of Gilead is a reference to a healing cream mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah in the Bible. As he thought about opening the door of insecurities to whatever was knocking at them, he became excited and terrified at the same time. If we look at the door symbolizing his weaknesses and insecurities, we can easily understand why he would want to avoid opening up to whatever was tapping on it. The raven does not even acknowledge the speaker, and he simply flies in with the airs of an aristocrat and rests on the statue above the chamber door of “Pallas” (also known as Athena the goddess of wisdom). It serves the same purpose as alliteration and appears beginning in the first line of the poem, where the long "e" sound is repeated in the words "dreary," "weak," and "weary.

He starts to focus his thoughts on the raven and what it could possibly mean by repeating the specific word “nevermore. His exploration of the macabre and supernatural, as well as his introspective and romantic themes, has cemented his place as one of America's most influential poets.There is only one law on this earth – the law that gives the strong and wealthy power over the weak and poor. However, Poe actually used several types of meter, and he is said to have based both the meter and rhyming pattern of "The Raven" off Elizabeth Barrett's poem " Lady Geraldine's Courtship. Fear is a prominent emotion in this poem as the speaker grapples with the fear of the unknown and the fear of the afterlife.