What are some phrases in the poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe and their meaning?

Answer: Phrases such as "midnight dreary", "bleak December", "nothing more", "nevermore" cast a dark shadow on the plot, and build the melancholic atmosphere.

Explanation:

"The Raven" is Edgar Allan Poe's poem, in which the narrator, mourning after his lover's death, is visited by a rather strange guest - the speaking raven.

In the poem, Poe uses various words and phrases, many of which are repeated multiple times throughout the poem. For instance, the word "nevermore", the only word that the raven utters, is an answer to all the questions that the narrator asks. This word contributes to the dark and melancholic atmosphere in the poem - winter (December), darkness, middle of the night, the narrator who is all alone in his "chamber" ... This setting is established at the very beginning of the poem, by the use of phrases such as "midnight dreary", "bleak December", etc. Moreover, Poe's repetition of the phrase "nothing more" as in "Only this and nothing more," "This it is and nothing more," "Darkness there and nothing more", makes the atmosphere even more frightening. The author is assuring himself that there is "nothing", or, in other words, that he is imagining the sounds that he hears. However, even before the raven appears, we somehow know that there is something behind the chamber door.