I love to use 'The Raven' as the poem for my narrative poetry units as an alternative or addition to 'The Highwayman'

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more."

The children can investigate the vocabulary of mood; weak, weary, quaint, dreary, bleak and dreary. How this vocabulary can affect the mood of the poem – experiment with mood words.

The children enjoy making predictions about Lenore – who she is and why she is knocking – they often suggest that she was a maid who loved her master; the subject's murdered wife; the ghost of a childhood sweetheart etc.

Investigate the lines that rhyme such as:

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain,

Use these lines as a template for the children to write their own narrative verses.