The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe Poem)

 It is crazy to think that this amazing poem is now 180 years old. But hey, it just goes to show us how good this poem is. On January 29th, 1845, the Raven was published in a newspaper called the New York Evening Mirror and it soon became his most popular poem.

As I was doing the research for this blog post, I learned that critics are divided when it comes to its literary legacy but is still considered to be one of the greatest poems of all time.

The Raven follows an unnamed narrator on a dreary night in December who sits reading a "forgotten lore" by the fireplace as a way to forget about the death of his love Lenore. Suddenly a raven would appear before him and the only thing it says is nevermore.

Many people believe that the forgotten lore which was mentioned in the poem was the narrator could possibly be reading a book based on the occult and/or black magic. In fact, some studies suggest that it was similar to a short story that Poe had written called Ligeia was also used in the poem.

What I always found intriguing about the poem was the dynamic between the narrator and the raven. The narrator would constantly ask the bird questions, but the only responds that he receives from the raven is nevermore. And even when he knows what the raven is going to say, he still asks him questions and slowly falls into madness.

According to Poe himself, he had chosen the raven because he wanted a non-reasoning creature capable of speech, He decided on a raven, which considered "equally capable of speech as a parrot and also it matched the intended tone of the poem. The raven symbolizes "Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance".  

Fun fact, Poe was also inspired by another great writer Charles Dickens who had a raven character of his own named Grip who was in Dickens' story Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty.

Another fun fact, this poem inspired the name of the Baltimore Ravens when they moved from Cleveland.

Of course there have been several pop culture references of the raven within books, TV shows, movies, etc.

If you have never read this poem, I can not recommend it enough for you to go out and read this poem. And again, it is crazy to think that this poem is nearly 200 years old.

God Bless you Poe! I pray that you are at peace and thank you for your writing.

Until Next Time!

God Bless and Be Safe Everyone! 🙏🙏🙏

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