The Raven

In Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven, we can see a perfect example of the use of symbolism. The raven that is "perched upon a bust of Pallas" is a representation of the memory that was Lenore. The raven, a bird of ill-omen, also symbolizes death or the ending of a cycle. Using this information, we can deduce that perhaps what has happened is that the narrator has lost Lenore. We can't be sure whether she has died or perhaps she has left him, but we do know because of the desolate and grim tone that there has been a significant event that has hurt the relations between narrator-Lenore.