Author: Jonathan Kendall / Source: Big Think
- Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1949) is considered one of America’s great writers.
- Poe penned his most famous poem, The Raven, in his 30s.
- Originally, the poem’s feathered subject was a bit flamboyant.
By his mid-30s, Edgar Allan Poe was not only weary by the hardships of poverty, but also regularly intoxicated — by more than just macabre visions.
Despite this, the Gothic writer lucidly insisted that there was still a method to his madness when it came to devising poems.In an essay titled “The Philosophy of Composition,” published in 1846 in Graham’s Magazine, Poe divulged how his creative process worked, particularly in regard to his most famous poem: “No one point in [The Raven’s] composition is rerferrible either to accident or intuition… the work proceeded step by step, to its completion with the precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem.”
That said, contrary to the popular idea that Edgar Allan Poe penned his poems in single bursts of inspiration, The Raven did not pour out from his quivering quill in one fell swoop. Rather it came about through a calculative process — one that included making some pretty notable changes, even to its avian subject.
As an example of how his mind worked, Poe describes in his essay that originally the bird that flew across the dreary scene immortalized in the poem was actually… a parrot.
Poe had pondered ways he could have his one word refrain, “nevermore,” continuously repeated throughout…
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