{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"157: Edgar Allan Poe: "The Raven"","description":"This week on StoryWeb: Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s poem \u201cThe Raven.\u201d For this spooky Halloween edition of StoryWeb, I\u2019m featuring Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s \u201cThe Raven.\u201d Everyone knows this haunting poem \u2013 but less well known is Poe\u2019s essay \u201cThe Philosophy of Composition,\u201d in which he explains how he quite methodically wrote the poem. Now \u201cThe Raven,\u201d you have to understand, made a splash. Poe was a relatively unknown writer when he published the poem in January 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror and again the next month in The American Review. Almost overnight, he became a huge literary sensation, though he didn\u2019t make much money from it or his other writing. Readers just couldn\u2019t get over the macabre poem. Poe decided to ride the wave of the poem\u2019s instant popularity, and a year later, he published \u201cThe Philosophy of Composition\u201d in Graham\u2019s Magazine. His account of how he wrote \u201cThe Raven\u201d step by step is likely exaggerated \u2013 he makes it almost seem as if he was completing a paint-by-number artwork. Do this, do that \u2013 and voila, a wildly successful poem! Read the essay to learn why he used certain vowel sounds (such as the long vowel sound in \u201cNevermore\u201d), how he strove for \u201cunity of effect,\u201d and why he believed stories and poems should be short. If a person could read a poem or story in one sitting, Poe believed, the author could better control the unity of effect. If you want to terrify your reader, best to do it in one concentrated burst with every element of the poem or story contributing to that terror. More than 150 years later, \u201cThe Raven\u201d is still one of the most widely read poems in the English language. Some literary scholars lift a critical eyebrow about it, concluding that it is not fine literature. But as you listen to me read the poem in its entirety, are you really thinking about fine literature or are you just caught up in the creepy, eerie feeling it creates? Even Poe himself asserts that he set out to write a poem that would "suit at once the popular and critical taste." This question of whether \u201cThe Raven\u201d is fine literature goes to Poe\u2019s entire body of work. Perhaps because he was so popular, some scholars call into question whether he can be seen as a serious artist. But to my mind, creating works that are accessible to a wide range of readers is a mark in his favor. Not surprisingly, Poe\u2019s explanation of how he wrote \u201cThe Raven\u201d ended up being a footnote to the great poem itself. Few readers know \u2013 or even give much thought to \u2013 how Poe wrote the poem. They are too busy enjoying it! The \u201cunity of effect\u201d Poe cites in \u201cThe Raven\u201d is evident in his fiction as well. Another masterful piece suitable for Halloween is \u201cThe Tell-Tale Heart\u201d \u2013 and it, too, utilizes unity of effect and is written so that it can be read in one suspenseful sitting. Every single word in this taut, hair-raising story contributes to the suspense, to the reader\u2019s growing horror at what the narrator has done. Both \u201cThe Raven\u201d and \u201cThe Tell-Tale Heart\u201d are classic Poe. Vincent Price has a great rendition of \u201cThe Raven,\u201d and you might want to stop by the Poe Museum. A great volume to have in your collection is Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. If you still haven\u2019t had enough Poe, check out Poe Illustrated, a collection of more than 100 images inspired by Poe\u2019s work. A fun edition of \u201cThe Raven\u201d is Christopher Wormell\u2019s pop-up book, and there\u2019s no end of Raven items you can buy: mugs, posters, T-shirts, and clocks. You can even buy an Edgar Allan Poe action figure! Visit thestoryweb.com\/raven for links to all these resources. Listen now as I read Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s poem \u201cThe Raven\u201d in its entirety. ","author_name":"StoryWeb: Storytime for Grownups","author_url":"http:\/\/storyweb.libsyn.com\/webpage","html":"