“Plutonian” is a reference to Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld. The narrator, upon first encountering the Raven, is amused by its stately comportment, and jokingly accuses it of having emerged from the “Night’s Plutonian shore”— the border between the worlds of the living and the dead. At the close of the poem, the narrator, no longer amused and convinced that the bird means him ill, repeats the phrase with conviction, suggesting that the Raven is a messenger of death, but not a death in which souls travel up to a heavenly paradise where they are reunited with the other departed, but instead a death of blackness and despair.
“Night’s Plutonian shore” Quotes in The Raven
The The Raven quotes below all refer to the symbol of “Night’s Plutonian shore”. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Raven
Quotes
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!
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“Night’s Plutonian shore” Symbol Timeline in The Raven
The timeline below shows where the symbol “Night’s Plutonian shore” appears in The Raven. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Raven
...response. Now furious and heartbroken, the narrator screams at the bird to return to “the Night’s Plutonian shore !” and never return. But the bird does not depart.
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