If ‘The Raven’ is prophetic, then perhaps the Ravens will win. For Poe’s raven is an emblem of “Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance,” That would make the 49er the poem’s sorrowful narrator, forever in the bird’s shadow, to whose hopes the only word spoken would be “Nevermore.” Yet we should also note that, according to the Poe scholar T. O. Mabbott, the occasion for Poe’s 1849 poem “Eldorado” was the Gold Rush. If “Eldorado” is prophetic, then perhaps the 49ers have a remote chance — if they’re able to “Ride, boldly ride” “Over the mountains/ Of the Moon,/ Down the Valley of the Shadow” to find Eldorado.