Classic to Modern English Literature

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. Poe explained in his 1846 follow-up essay, "The Philosophy of Composition", that the poem makes use of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references. He based the complex rhythm and meter on Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship" and utilized internal rhyme and alliteration throughout. Inspired in part by a talking raven in Charles Dickens' novel "Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty," "The Raven" follows an unnamed narrator on a dreary night in December.  The narrator sits reading "forgotten lore" by the remains of a fire to forget the death of his beloved Lenore. A "tapping at [his] chamber door" reveals nothing but excites his soul to "burning." The poem was first attributed to Poe in print in the New York Evening Mirror on January 29, 1845. The narrator become