The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Today is the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts (1809).

His poem "The Raven" is one of his best-known works, and it is also one of the most popular poems in the English language. Even people who have no interest in poetry can usually recite a line or two.

It's narrated by a studious young man who is mourning the loss of his lover, Lenore. When a talking raven visits him on a bleak December night, we follow his descent from amusement into madness.

At the time he was writing the poem, Poe's young wife, Virginia, was slowly dying of tuberculosis. Poe may have gotten the idea for a talking raven from a Dickens novel: Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty (1841). There was a talking raven in the Dickens book too, but it didn't bear much resemblance to the sinister bird of Poe's poem.

Poe brought the poem to his friend George Rex Graham, hoping he would publish it in Graham's Magazine. Graham turned him down, but gave him $15 anyway. The American Review agreed to publish it, and paid the poet $9. It appeared in the magazine's February 1845 issue, under the name Quarles. It was also published around that time in the Evening Mirror under Poe's name.

"The Raven" was an instant sensation and made Poe a household word. One critic called it subtle, ingenious, and imaginative, and predicted, "It will stick to the memory of everybody who reads it."

Over the next several months, "The Raven" appeared in journals throughout the country and it was such a rousing success that Wiley and Putnam published two of Poe's books that year: a collection of prose called Tales and alsoThe Raven and Other Poems (1845). That was his first book of poetry in 14 years.

The Raven (excerpt)

by Edgar Allan Poe

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."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,"

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you" - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.

This is taken by Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac. If you enjoy books and poetry, take a look at it here: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

Also check out: clubuldepresatransatlantic.wordpress.com/.../transatlantic-poetry-arc. More information and ideas exchange on Edgar Allan Poe. See comment below for other language links.