The Raven

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the latter's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student,Meyers, 163] Silverman, 239] is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. The raven, sitting on a bust of Pallas, seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word, "Nevermore". Throughout the poem, Poe makes allusions to folklore and various classical works.

Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically. His intention was to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes, as he explains in the follow-up essay "The Philosophy of Composition". The poem was inspired in part by a talking raven in the novel "" by Charles Dickens.Kopley & Hayes, 192] Poe borrows the complex rhythm and meter of Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship".

The first publication of "The Raven" on January 29, 1845, in the "New York Evening Mirror" made Poe widely popular in his lifetime. The poem was soon reprinted, parodied, and illustrated. Though some critics disagree about the value of the poem, it remains one of the most famous poems ever written.Silverman, 237]

ynopsis

quote box2|border=1px|align=left|title=The Raven|halign=left|quote=

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."

hidden beginAh, 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 borrowFrom my books of sorrow — sorrow for the lost Lenore —For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore — Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtainThrilled 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.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" — Merely this, and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before."Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice:Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore —Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; — 'Tis the wind and nothing more."

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;Not the least made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;But, with of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door —Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door — Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore."Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no ,Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore —Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

Much I marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,Though its answer little meaning— little relevancy bore;For we cannot help agreeing that no living human beingEver yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door —Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door, With such name as "Nevermore."

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke onlyThat one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.Nothing further then he uttered— not a feather then he fluttered —Till I scarcely more than muttered, "other friends have flown before —On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before." Then the bird said, "Nevermore."

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful DisasterFollowed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore —Till the of his Hope that melancholy burden bore Of 'Never — nevermore'."

But the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linkingFancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore —What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore Meant in croaking "Nevermore."

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressingTo the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease recliningOn the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o'er, She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen Swung by whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor."Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he hath sent theeRespite — and , from thy memories of Lenore, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! — prophet still, if bird or devil! —Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted —On this home by horror haunted— tell me truly, I implore —Is there - is there ? — tell me — tell me, I implore!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil - prophet still, if bird or devil!By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore -Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore." Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend," I shrieked, upstarting —"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!Leave my loneliness unbroken!— quit the bust above my door!Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sittingOn the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted — nevermore!hidden end|salign=right|source=—Edgar Allan Poe

"The Raven" follows an unnamed narrator who sits reading "forgotten lore"Poe, 773] as a method to forget the loss of his love, Lenore. A "rapping at [his] chamber door" reveals nothing, but excites his soul to "burning".Poe, 774] A similar rapping, slightly louder, is heard at his window. When he goes to investigate, a raven steps into his chamber. Paying no attention to the man, the raven perches on a bust of Pallas.

Amused by the raven's comically serious disposition, the man demands that the bird tell him its name. The raven's only answer is "Nevermore". The narrator is surprised that the raven can talk, though it will not say anything further. He reasons that the bird learned the word "Nevermore" from some "unhappy master" and that it is the only word it knows. The narrator remarks that his "friend" the raven will soon fly out of his life, just as "other friends have flown before" along with his previous hopes. As if answering, the raven responds again with "Nevermore". The narrator is convinced that this single word, possibly learned from a previous owner with bad luck, is all that the bird can say.

Even so, the narrator pulls his chair directly in front of the raven, determined to learn more about it. He thinks for a moment, not saying anything, but his mind wanders back to his lost Lenore. He thinks the air grows denser and feels the presence of angels. Confused by the association of the angels with the bird, the narrator becomes angry, calling the raven a "thing of evil" and a "prophet". As he yells at the raven it only responds, "Nevermore".Poe, 775] Finally, he asks the raven if he will be reunited with Lenore in heaven. When the raven responds with its typical "Nevermore", he shrieks and commands the raven to return to the "Plutonian shore", though it never moves. Presumably at the time of the poem's recitation by the narrator, the raven "still is sitting" on the bust of Pallas. The narrator's final admission is that his soul is trapped beneath the raven's shadow and shall be lifted "Nevermore".

Analysis

Poe wrote the poem as a narrative, without intentionally creating an allegory or falling into didacticism. The main theme of the poem is one of undying devotion. [Cornelius, Kay. "Biography of Edgar Allan Poe" in "Bloom's BioCritiques: Edgar Allan Poe", Harold Bloom, ed. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2002. p. 21 ISBN 0791061736] The narrator experiences a perverse conflict between desire to forget and desire to remember. He seems to get some pleasure from focusing on loss.Kopley & Hayes, 194] The narrator assumes that the word "Nevermore" is the raven's "only stock and store", and yet he continues to ask it questions, knowing what the answer will be. His questions, then, are purposely self-deprecating and further incite his feelings of loss. [Hoffman, 74] Poe leaves it unclear if the raven actually knows what it is saying or if it really intends to cause a reaction in the poem's narrator. [Hirsch, 195-6] The narrator begins as weak and weary, becomes regretful and grief-stricken, before passing into a frenzy and, finally, madness. [Hoffman, 73–74]

Allusions

Poe says that the narrator is a young scholar.Sova, 208] Though this is not explicitly stated in the poem, it is mentioned in "The Philosophy of Composition". It is also suggested by the narrator reading books of "lore" as well as by the bust of Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom.

He is reading "many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore". Similar to the studies suggested in Poe's short story "Ligeia", this lore may be about the occult or black magic. This is also emphasized in the author's choice to set the poem in December, a month when the forces of darkness are believed to be especially active. The use of the raven — the "devil bird" — also suggests this. [Granger, 53–54] This devil image is emphasized by the narrator's belief that the raven is "from the Night's Plutonian shore", or a messenger from the afterlife, referring to Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld (also known as Hades in Greek mythology).

Poe chose a raven as the central symbol in the story because he wanted a "non-reasoning" creature capable of speech. He decided on a raven, which he considered "equally capable of speech" as a parrot, because it matched the intended tone of the poem. [Hirsch, 195] Poe said the raven is meant to symbolize "mournful and never-ending remembrance". [Silverman, 240] He was also inspired by Grip, the raven in "" by Charles Dickens. [Meyers, 162] One scene in particular bears a resemblance to "The Raven": at the end of the fifth chapter of Dickens's novel, Grip makes a noise and someone says, "What was that – him tapping at the door?" The response is, "'Tis someone knocking softly at the shutter."cite web|title=RE: Cremains / Ravens|url=http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/exlibris/1999/07/msg00399.html|publisher=Pro Exlibris archives|accessdate=2007-04-01] Dickens's raven could speak many words and had many comic turns, including the popping of a champagne cork, but Poe emphasized the bird's more dramatic qualities. Poe had written a review of "Barnaby Rudge" for "Graham's Magazine" saying, among other things, that the raven should have served a more symbolic, prophetic purpose. The similarity did not go unnoticed: James Russell Lowell in his "A Fable for Critics" wrote the verse, "Here comes Poe with his raven, like "Barnaby Rudge" / Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge." [Cornelius, Kay. "Biography of Edgar Allan Poe" in "Bloom's BioCritiques: Edgar Allan Poe", Harold Bloom, ed. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2002. p. 20 ISBN 0791061736]

Poe may also have been drawing upon various references to ravens in mythology and folklore. In Norse mythology, Odin possessed two ravens named Hugin and Munin, representing thought and memory. [Adams, 53] The raven also gets a reputation as a bird of ill omen in the book of Genesis. [Hirsch, 195] According to Hebrew folklore, Noah sends a white raven to check conditions while on the ark. It learns that the floodwaters are beginning to dissipate, but it does not immediately return with the news. It is punished by being turned black and being forced to feed on carrion forever. In Ovid's "Metamorphoses", a raven also begins as white before Apollo punishes it by turning it black for delivering a message of a lover's unfaithfulness. The raven's role as a messenger in Poe's poem may draw from those stories. [Adams, 53]

Poe also mentions the Balm of Gilead, a reference to the Book of Jeremiah in the Bible: "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" [ [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_%28King_James%29/Jeremiah#8:22 Jeremiah 8:22] ] In that context, the Balm of Gilead is a resin used for medicinal purposes (suggesting, perhaps, that the narrator needs to be healed after the loss of Lenore). He also refers to "Aidenn", another word for the Garden of Eden, though Poe uses it to ask if Lenore has been accepted into Heaven. At another point, the narrator imagines that seraphim (a type of angel) have entered the room. The narrator thinks they are trying to take his memories of Lenore away from him using , a drug mentioned in Homer's "Odyssey" to induce forgetfulness.

Poetic structure

The poem is made up of 18 stanzas of six lines each. Generally, the meter is trochaic octameter — eight trochaic feet per line, each foot having one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable. The first line, for example (with / representing stressed syllables and x representing unstressed):

Edgar Allan Poe, however, claimed the poem was a combination of octameter acatalectic, heptameter catalectic, and tetrameter catalectic. The rhyme scheme is ABCBBB and makes heavy use of internal rhyme ("dreary" and "weary"; "Once upon" and "while I pon-") and alliteration ("Doubting, dreaming dreams..."). [Kopley & Hayes, 192–193] 20th century American poet Daniel Hoffman suggested that the poem's structure and meter is so formulaic that it is artificial, though its mesmeric quality overrides that. [Hoffman, 76]

Poe based the structure of "The Raven" on the complicated rhyme and rhythm of Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship". Poe had reviewed Barrett's work in the January 1845 issue of the "Broadway Journal" and said that "her poetic inspiration is the highest - we can conceive of nothing more august. Her sense of Art is pure in itself." About "Lady Geraldine's Courtship", he said, "I have never read a poem combining so much of the fiercest passion with so much of the most delicate imagination." [Meyers, 160]

Publication history

[
Édouard Manet's illustration of the poem was one of many made after initial publication.] Poe first brought "The Raven" to his friend and former employer George Rex Graham of "Graham's Magazine" in Philadelphia. Graham declined the poem, which may not have been in its final version, though he gave Poe $15 as charity. [Hoffman, 79] Poe then attempted to place the poem with "", which paid him $9 for it. [Ostrom, 5] Though it was first sold to "The American Review", which printed it in February 1845, "The Raven" was first published in the "Evening Mirror" on January 29, 1845, as an "advance copy". Nathaniel Parker Willis, editor of the "Mirror", introduced it as "unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle conception, masterly ingenuity of versification, and consistent, sustaining of imaginative lift... It will stick to the memory of everybody who reads it." Following this publication the poem appeared in periodicals across the United States, including the "New York Tribune" (February 4, 1845), "Broadway Journal" (vol. 1, February 8, 1845), "Southern Literary Messenger" (vol. 11, March 1845), "Literary Emporium" (vol. 2, December 1845), "Saturday Courier", 16 (July 25, 1846), and the "Richmond Examiner" (September 25, 1849). [cite web
title = The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
publisher = Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
date = April 27, 2007
url = http://www.eapoe.org/works/poems/index.htm
accessdate = 2007-09-20 ] It has also appeared in numerous anthologies, starting with "Poets and Poetry of America" edited by Rufus Wilmot Griswold in 1847.

Illustrators

Later publications of "The Raven" included artwork by well-known illustrators. Notably, in 1858 "The Raven" appeared in a British Poe anthology with illustrations by John Tenniel, the "Alice in Wonderland" illustrator ("The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: With Original Memoir", London: Sampson Low). "The Raven" was published independently with lavish woodcuts by Gustave Doré in 1884 (New York: Harper & Brothers). Doré died before its publication. [Scholnick, Robert J. "In Defense of Beauty: Stedman and the Recognition of Poe in America, 1880-1910", collected in "Poe and His Times: The Artist and His Milieu", edited by Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV. Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society, 1990. p. 262. ISBN 0961644923] In 1875 a French edition with English and French text was published with lithographs by the famed Impressionist Édouard Manet and translation by the Symbolist Stephane Mallarmé. [cite web
title = Digital Gallery for Édouard Manet illustrations - Le corbeau
publisher = New York Public Library Digital Gallery
url = http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=173889&word=
accessdate = 2007-09-20 ] Many 20th century artists and contemporary illustrators created artworks and illustrations based on "The Raven", including Edmund Dulac, István Orosz, [cite web
first= István
last= Orosz
title = The poet in the mirror
publisher = Gallery Diabolus
url = http://www.gallery-diabolus.com/gallery/upload/utisz/Poe%20d.jpg
accessdate = 2007-09-20 - Anamorphic illustration for "The Raven"] [cite web
first= István
last= Orosz
title = The poet in the mirror
publisher = Gallery Diabolus
url = http://www.gallery-diabolus.com/gallery/upload/utisz/Poe%20hengerrel%20d.jpg
accessdate = 2007-09-20 - the same illustration with a chrome-plated brass cylinder] Ryan Price, [cite web
first= Ryan
last= Price
title = Illustrations by Ryan Price
publisher = Ingram Gallery
url = http://www.ingramgallery.com/price_raven.htm
accessdate = 2007-09-20 ] Odilon Redon and Gahan Wilson.

Composition

Poe capitalized on the success of "The Raven" by following it up with his essay "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846), in which he detailed the poem's creation. His description of its writing is probably exaggerated, though the essay serves as an important overview of Poe's literary theory. [Krutch, 98] He explains that every component of the poem is based on logic: the raven enters the chamber to avoid a storm (the "midnight dreary" in the "bleak December"), and its perch on a pallid white bust was to create visual contrast against the dark black bird. No aspect of the poem was an accident, he claims, but is based on total control by the author. [Silverman, 295–296] Even the term "Nevermore", he says, is used because of the effect created by the long vowel sounds (though Poe may have been inspired to use the word by the works of Lord Byron or Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [Forsythe, 439–452] ). Poe had experimented with the long "o" sound throughout many other poems: "no more" in "Silence", "evermore" in "The Conqueror Worm". The topic itself, Poe says, was chosen because "the death... of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world". Told from "the lips... of a bereaved lover" is best suited to achieve the desired effect. Beyond the poetics of it, the lost Lenore may have been inspired by events in Poe's own life as well, either to the early loss of his mother, Eliza Poe, or the long-illness endured by his wife, Virginia. Ultimately, Poe considered "The Raven" an experiment to "suit at once the popular and critical taste", accessible to both the mainstream and high literary worlds. It is unknown how long Poe worked on "The Raven"; speculation ranges from a single day to ten years. Poe recited a poem believed to be an early version with an alternate ending of "The Raven" in 1843 in Saratoga, New York. An early draft may have featured an owl. [Weiss, 185]

Critical reception and impact

In part due to its dual printing, "The Raven" made Edgar Allan Poe a household name almost immediately;Hoffman, 80] people began to identify poem with poet, earning Poe the nickname "The Raven".Silverman, 238] The poem was soon widely reprinted, imitated, and parodied. Though it made Poe popular in his day, it did not bring him significant financial success. [Krutch, 155]

The "New World" said, "Everyone reads the Poem and praises it... justly, we think, for it seems to us full of originality and power." "The Pennsylvania Inquirer" reprinted it with the heading "A Beautiful Poem". Elizabeth Barrett wrote to Poe, "Your 'Raven' has produced a sensation, a fit o' horror, here in England. Some of my friends are taken by the fear of it and some by the music. I hear of persons haunted by 'Nevermore'." [Krutch, 153] Poe's popularity resulted in invitations to recite "The Raven" and to lecture – in public and at private social gatherings. At one literary salon, a guest noted, "to hear [Poe] repeat the Raven... is an event in one's life." [Silverman, 279] It was recalled, "He would turn down the lamps till the room was almost dark, then standing in the center of the apartment he would recite... in the most melodious of voices... So marvelous was his power as a reader that the auditors would be afraid to draw breath lest the enchanted spell be broken." [Krutch, 154] Parodies sprung up especially in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia and included "The Craven" by "Poh!", "The Gazelle", "The Whippoorwill", and "The Turkey". One parody, "The Pole-Cat", caught the attention of Andrew Johnston, a lawyer who sent it on to Abraham Lincoln. Though Lincoln admitted he had "several hearty laughs", he had never read "The Raven". [Thomas, Dwight and David K. Jackson. "The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849". New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987: 635. ISBN 0783814011.]

"The Raven" was praised by fellow writers William Gilmore Simms and Margaret Fuller, [Meyers, 184] though it was denounced by William Butler Yeats, who called it "insincere and vulgar... its execution a rhythmical trick". Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I see nothing in it." [Silverman, 265] A critic for the "Southern Quarterly Review" wrote in July 1848 that the poem was ruined by "a wild and unbridled extravagance" and that minor things like a rapping at the door and a fluttering curtain would only affect "a child who had been frightened to the verge of idiocy by terrible ghost stories". [Thomas, Dwight and David K. Jackson. "The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849". New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987: 739. ISBN 0783814011.] An anonymous writer going by the pseudonym "Outis" suggested in the "Evening Mirror" that "The Raven" was plagiarized from a poem called "The Bird of the Dream" by an unnamed author. The writer showed 18 similarities between the poems and was made as a response to Poe's accusations of plagiarism against Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It has been suggested Outis was really Cornelius Conway Felton, if not Poe himself. [Moss, 169] After Poe's death, his friend Thomas Holley Chivers said "The Raven" was plagiarized from one of his poems. [Moss, 101] In particular, he claimed to have been the inspiration for the meter of the poem as well as the refrain "nevermore". [Parks, Edd Winfield. "Ante-Bellum Southern Literary Critics". Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1962: 182.]

"The Raven" has influenced many modern works, including Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" in 1955, Bernard Malamud's "The Jewbird" in 1963 and Ray Bradbury's "The Parrot Who Knew Papa" in 1976. [Kopley & Hayes, 196] The poem is additionally referenced throughout popular culture in films, television, music and more.

= See also =
*The Raven in popular culture
*Cultural depictions of ravens
*"Lenore" - an earlier poem by Poe

Notes

References

*Adams, John F. "Classical Raven Lore and Poe's Raven" in "Poe Studies". Vol. V, no. 2, December 1972. [http://www.eapoe.org/pstudies/ps1970/p1972209.htm Available online]
*Forsythe, Robert. "Poe's 'Nevermore': A Note", as collected in "American Literature 7". January, 1936.
*Granger, Byrd Howell. "Marginalia - Devil Lore in 'The Raven'" from Poe Studies vol. V, no. 2, December 1972 [http://www.eapoe.org/pstudies/ps1970/p1972209.htm Available online]
*Hirsch, David H. "The Raven and the Nightingale" as collected in "Poe and His Times: The Artist and His Milieu", edited by Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV. Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society, Inc., 1990. ISBN 0961644923
*Hoffman, Daniel. "Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe". Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972. ISBN 0807123218
*Kopley, Richard and Kevin J. Hayes. "Two verse masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume'", collected in "The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe", edited by Kevin J. Hayes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 0521797276
*Krutch, Joseph Wood. "Edgar Allan Poe: A Study in Genius". New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926.
*Meyers, Jeffrey. "Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy". New York City: Cooper Square Press, 1992. ISBN 0815410387
*Moss, Sidney P. "Poe's Literary Battles: The Critic in the Context of His Literary Milieu". Southern Illinois University Press, 1969.
*Ostrom, John Ward. "Edgar A. Poe: His Income as Literary Entrepreneur", collected in "Poe Studies" Vol. 5, no. 1. June 1982.
*Poe, Edgar Allan. "Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems". Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 2002. ISBN 0785814531
*Silverman, Kenneth. "Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance". New York: Harper Perennial, 1991. ISBN 0060923318
*Sova, Dawn B. "Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z". New York City: Checkmark Books, 2001. ISBN 081604161X
*Weiss, Susan Archer. "The Home Life of Poe". New York: Broadway Publishing Company, 1907.

External links

Text
* [http://www.eapoe.org/works/poems/ravena.htm "The Raven"] - Full text of the first printing, from the "American Review", 1845
* [http://www.eapoe.org/works/poems/ravent.htm "The Raven"] - Full text of the final authorized printing, from the "Richmond Semi-Weekly Examiner", 1849Commentary
* [http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/raven/ The Poe Decoder] - Essay on the symbols, words and composition of "The Raven"
* [http://www.archive.org/details/ravenwithliterar00poeeuoft "The Raven. With Literary and Historical Commentary by John H. Ingram"] . London G. Redway. 1885.
* [http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Raven.html#The%20Raven "The Raven" Study Guide] Illustrated
*gutenberg|no=14082|name=The Raven "illustrated by Édouard Manet'
*gutenberg|no=17192|name=The Raven "illustrated by Gustave Doré'

Audio
* [http://classicpoetryaloud.podomatic.com/entry/2008-02-29T02_21_58-08_00 Reading of 'The Raven' and text] by Classic Poetry Aloud (MP3)
* [http://publicliterature.org/books/the_raven/xaa.php "The Raven"] , complete text and audio
*Garrison Keillor's rendition of [http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/phc/2006/09/09_phc?start=00:01:26:29.0&end=00:01:35:55.5 "The Raven"] (RealAudio)
* [http://librivox.org/the-raven-by-edgar-allan-poe/ Reading of "The Raven"] by LibriVox
*Audiobook recording with accompanying text of [http://loudlit.org/works/raven.htm "The Raven"] .
* [http://www.jottings.ca/john/voices/sound/08.mp3 Reading of "The Raven"] by Martin Reyto.Video
* [http://tomsoni.com/media/Raven.wmv Video] of Vincent Price giving a dramatic, however not always literal, reading of "The Raven"
* [http://www.trilobitepictures.com/raven/index.html Official site] of the 2003 short film version by Trilobite Pictures