Question:

This excerpt from Poe's "The Raven" contains many challenging vocabulary words. Read the excerpt, and analyze the context to determine the meaning of any five of the words listed below. Define the words without using a dictionary, and briefly explain how you arrived at your definitions.

Stanza 1: dreary, lore

Stanza 2: bleak, ember, vainly, surcease, radiant

Stanza 3: entreating

Stanza 4: implore, scarce

1) Dreary: sad

2) Bleak: Desolate

3) Vainly: unsuccessfully

4) Implore: Supplicate

5) Radiant: Brilliant

Explanation:

1) It refers to a sad night where the speaker talks and reflects on his lost love.

2) That December is desolate, as the speaker recalls as he talks about the moment this happened.

3) Unsuccessfully tried to calm his grief over Lenore's death.

4) The speaker supplicates for the forgiveness of that visitor whom he ignored.

5) Brilliant is how he describes the maiden that Lenore was, almost like an angel.

This is one of Poe's most famous poems where the visit of a raven to a man who has lost his great love Lenor is narrated. This raven ends up driving the man to madness, since the speaker cannot accept that he will never see his beloved again.