intensifies the already onomatopoeic word "rustling."

The poem is ideally suited to teach the way sound devices can create a mood of mystery and melancholy.

Rhyme

Poe uses not only traditional end rhyme but also internal rhymes. For instance, in line one "dreary" rhymes with the final word "weary." The same happens in line 3 with "napping" and "tapping" and the repeated "rapping" in line 4.

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds of two or more words lends added richness. Note the w's and n's of "weak and weary" and "nearly napping."

Assonance

The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonants in closely related words or accented syllables adds music of its own. The long "a" sound of "stately," "Raven," "saintly," and "days" carries on in stanza 7 through "obeisance made," "stayed" and "chamber."

Auxesis

I hear knowledgeable people mumbling, "What the heck is that? Some weird typo?" No, auxesis, from the Greek for increase or amplification, refers to intensified hyperbole. In The Raven Poe employs the device in lines such as

"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before."

Note how the simple act of peering into the darkness increases first to wondering, then to fearing, and ultimately to dreaming dreams never before dreamt. The effect is intensified by the alliteration of 6 words beginning with "d"; the interior rhymes "peering" and "fearing" and the assonance involved in the 3 different variations: dreaming, dreams, dream that replicate the vowel sounds of Deep, peering, fearing and the several -ing endings.

Repetition

The repetition of a word or phrase is especially striking in lines 16 and 17 with "some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door" followed by the slight alteration of "some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door." The concluding word or phrase of each stanza picks up the sound of his lost Lenore's name with "nothing more. . . .forevermore. . . .and the six repetitions of "Nevermore."

Onomatopoeia

The use of words whose sounds are imitations of natural sounds is evident in such words as "rapping," "tapping," and "beating" suggest the heartbeat of the speaker whose agitation increases with every succeeding stanza.

The speaker goes to the door but finds only darkness. He whispers the name Lenore, and it echoes back to him. Returning to his chamber, he hears the same tapping, louder

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