Poe's Composition of the Raven
Edgar Allen Poe describes in great detail, his poem "The Raven", in The Philosophy of Composition. Never before had I been able to read a poet describe in his own philosophy of making a poem. Poe goes in deep context and meaning to how he derives the story line to his poem. He explains what significance the raven plays in the poem and the beauty of his intent in the poem.
Poe, first thought of an impression or effect he would like to suppress upon the reader. In this case, he chose beauty as the sole intent of his poem. Second he wanted to find a tone, which would express his view of beauty throughout the poem. His choice of tone was sadness because he believed beauty "excites the sensitive soul to tears" (1575). He also wanted to use a refrain, brief, but subtle, which would be a vocal variation to the poem. He chose to use only a single word "nevermore" (1576). His next idea was to think of a creature that could believably speak such a word, but still keep the intent of the tone of sadness and melancholy. He first thought of the obvious, which was a parrot, but decided a raven to be a better creature for such a tone.
Once these features had been derived, he needed bases for the poem. In the case of beauty, he believed a dead lover to be the beauty. Poe writes, "the death, then, of a beautiful women is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world"(1576). On the other hand, Poe figured what better then the dead lovers, existing
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partner, who is forced to live in agony of death, to be the sadness. The way he puts the poem together, by having the "beginning-at the en ...