The Raven made Poe famous almost overnight in early 1845. A year later he published an essay claiming he could account for every choice in it, as though the poem had been solved rather than received. Whether or not you believe him, the walkthrough is one of the most detailed craft documents in American literature.
Starting With Length and Tone
Poe began, by his account, with two decisions that had nothing to do with plot. The first was length. He wanted a poem short enough to be read in one sitting, because a work broken across several sessions loses the unity of impression he cared about above all else. He settled on roughly a hundred lines, and The Raven runs to a hundred and eight. The second decision was tone. He wanted the poem to produce an effect of beauty, and he held that melancholy was the most legitimate of all poetic tones, the one that moved a sensitive reader most deeply. That single choice pointed him toward the saddest subject he could imagine.
From there the subject almost chose itself. If melancholy was the goal and beauty the province, then the death of a beautiful woman, mourned by the lover left behind, gave him the most concentrated version of both. It is a claim modern readers rightly find uncomfortable, and it says as much about Poe's era and his obsessions as about poetry in general. He stated it without a flicker of hesitation.
The death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.
Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Composition
Finding the Word Nevermore
With the tone fixed, Poe wanted a refrain, a single word repeated at the close of each stanza so its force would build with every return. He reasoned the word needed a long, drawn-out vowel and a consonant he could hold and stress, which led him to the long o and the r. Searching for a word that carried that sound and the poem's grief at once, he arrived at 'Nevermore.' By his own telling it was the first word that presented itself, and nothing he tried afterward improved on it.
Then he needed a speaker who could repeat the word without reason. A grieving man wouldn't say the same thing a dozen times, so Poe reached for a creature that could speak without understanding. He first considered a parrot, then replaced it with a raven, a bird of ill omen far better suited to the melancholy and plausibly taught a single word. The famous bird, in other words, arrived late in the design, chosen to fit a decision Poe had already made.
The essay is only part of the story behind the poem. For the cities, the poverty, and the working life that surrounded its writing, see the full Edgar Allan Poe writing routine.
What You Can Steal
- Decide the feeling first. Poe chose his emotional target before he chose a single image or line.
- Keep it short enough to land in one sitting. He believed a reading broken into pieces breaks the effect.
- Choose your sounds on purpose. He picked the refrain for how it sits in the mouth, then confirmed the meaning fit.
- Give a repeated line a reason to repeat. The raven exists so the word can come back without feeling forced.