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Raven and The Philosophy Of Composition - Edgar Allan Poe · Erewhon

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  Speaker 1: Forward of The Raven and The Philosophy of Composition. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by David Wales. The Raven and
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  Speaker 1: the Philosophy of Composition by Edgar Allan Poe Forward. The
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  Speaker 1: initial intention of the publishers to present The Raven without preface,
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  Speaker 1: notes or other extraneous matter that might detract from an
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  Speaker 1: undivided appreciation of the poem has been somewhat modified by
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  Speaker 1: the introduction of Poe's prose essay The Philosophy of Composition.
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  Speaker 1: If any justification were necessary, it is to be found
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  Speaker 1: both in the unique literary interest of the essay and
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  Speaker 1: in the fact that it is or purports to be
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  Speaker 1: a frank exposition of the modus operandi by which The
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  Speaker 1: Raven was written. It is felt that no other introduction
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  Speaker 1: could be more happily conceived or executed. Coming from Poe's
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  Speaker 1: own hand, it directly avoids the charge of presumption, and
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  Speaker 1: written in Poe's most felicitous style, it entirely escapes the
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  Speaker 1: defect not uncommon in analytical treatises of pedantry. It is
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  Speaker 1: indeed possible, as some critics assert that this supposed analysis
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  Speaker 1: is purely fictitious. If so, it becomes all the more
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  Speaker 1: distinctive as a marvelous bit of an imaginative writing, and
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  Speaker 1: as such ranks equally with that wild snatch of melody
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  Speaker 1: The Raven. But these same critics would lead us further
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  Speaker 1: to believe that The Raven itself is almost a literal
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  Speaker 1: translation of the work of a Persian poet. If they
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  Speaker 1: be again correct, Poe's genius, as seen in the creation
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  Speaker 1: of the Philosophy of Composition, is far more startling than
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  Speaker 1: it has otherwise appeared. And robbed of his bay leaves
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  Speaker 1: in the realm of poetry, he is to be crowned
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  Speaker 1: with a double wreath of buried holly for his prose.
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  Speaker 1: And forward Part one of The Raven and The Philosophy
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  Speaker 1: of Composition by Edgar Allan Poe. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. The Philosophy of Composition by Edgar
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  Speaker 1: Allan Poe. Charles Dickens, in a note now lying before me,
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  Speaker 1: alluding to an examination I once made of the mechanism
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  Speaker 1: of Barnaby Rudge says, by the way, are you aware
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  Speaker 1: that Godwin wrote his Caleb Williams backwards? He first involved
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  Speaker 1: his hero in a web of difficulties forming the second volume,
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  Speaker 1: and then for the first cast about him for some
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  Speaker 1: mode of accounting for what had been done. I cannot
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  Speaker 1: think this the precise mode of procedure on the part
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  Speaker 1: of Godwin, and indeed what he himself acknowledges is not
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  Speaker 1: altogether in accordance with mister Dickens's idea. But the author
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  Speaker 1: of Caleb Williams was too good an artist not to
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  Speaker 1: perceive the advantage derivable from at least a somewhat similar process.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing is more clear than that every plot worth the
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  Speaker 1: name must be elaborated to its denoument before anything be
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  Speaker 1: attempted with the pen. It is only with a denoument
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  Speaker 1: constantly in view that we can give a plot its
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  Speaker 1: indispensable air of consequence or causation. By making the incidents
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  Speaker 1: and especially the tone, at all points tend to the
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  Speaker 1: development of the intention. There is a radical error, I think,
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  Speaker 1: in the usual mode of constructing a story. Either history
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  Speaker 1: affords a thesis, or one is suggested by an incident
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  Speaker 1: of the day, or at best the author sets himself
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  Speaker 1: to work, in the combination of striking events, to form
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  Speaker 1: merely the basis of his narrative, designing generally to fill
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  Speaker 1: in with description, dialogue, or artorial comment, whatever crevices of
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  Speaker 1: fact or action may from page to pay render themselves apparent.
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  Speaker 1: I prefer commencing with the consideration of an effect, keeping
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  Speaker 1: originality always in view, For he is false to himself
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  Speaker 1: who ventures to dispense with so obvious and so easily
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  Speaker 1: attainable a source of interest. I say to myself, in
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  Speaker 1: the first place, of the innumerable effects or impressions of
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  Speaker 1: which the heart, the intellect, or more generally the soul
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  Speaker 1: is susceptible, what one shall I, on the present occasion select.
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  Speaker 1: Having chosen a novel first and secondly a vivid effect,
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  Speaker 1: I consider whether it can be best wrought by incident
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  Speaker 1: or tone, whether by ordinary incidents and peculiar tone, or
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  Speaker 1: the converse, or by peculiarity both of incident and tone. Afterward,
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  Speaker 1: looking about me, or rather within, for such combinations of
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  Speaker 1: event or tone as shall best aid me in the
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  Speaker 1: construction of the effect, I have often thought how interesting
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  Speaker 1: a magazine paper might be written by any author who
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  Speaker 1: would that is to say, who could detail, step by
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  Speaker 1: step the processes by which any one of his compositions
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  Speaker 1: attained its ultimate point of completion. Why such a paper
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  Speaker 1: has never been given to the world. I am much
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  Speaker 1: at a loss to say, But perhaps the autorial vanity
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  Speaker 1: has had more to do with the omission than any
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  Speaker 1: one other cause. Most writers, poets, in especial prefer having
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  Speaker 1: yet understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy,
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  Speaker 1: an ecstatic intuition, and would positively shudder at letting the
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  Speaker 1: public take a peek behind the scenes, at the elaborate
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  Speaker 1: and vacillating crudities of thought, At the true purposes seized
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  Speaker 1: only at the last moment, At the innumerable glimpses of
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  Speaker 1: idea that arrived not at the maturity of full view,
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  Speaker 1: At the fully matured fancies discarded in despair as unmanageable,
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  Speaker 1: At the cautious selections and rejections, At the painful erasures
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  Speaker 1: and interpolations, in a word, at the wheels and pinions,
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  Speaker 1: the tackle for scene shifting, the step ladders and demon traps,
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  Speaker 1: the cock's feathers, the red paint, and the black patches, which,
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  Speaker 1: in ninety nine cases out of the hundred constitute the
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  Speaker 1: properties of the literary histrio. I am aware, on the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, that the case is by no means common
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  Speaker 1: in which an author is at all in condition to
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  Speaker 1: retrace the steps by which his conclusions have been attained.
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  Speaker 1: In general, suggestions have arisen, pell mell are pursued and
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  Speaker 1: forgotten in a similar manner. For my own part, I
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  Speaker 1: have neither sympathy with the repugnance alluded to, nor at
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  Speaker 1: any time the least difficulty in recalling to mind the
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  Speaker 1: progressive steps of any of my compositions. And since the
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  Speaker 1: interests of an analysis or reconstruction, such as I have
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  Speaker 1: considered a disisydom, is quite independent of any real or
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  Speaker 1: fancied interest in the thing analyzed, it will not be
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  Speaker 1: regarded as a breach of decorum on my part. To
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  Speaker 1: show the modus operandib by which some one of my
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  Speaker 1: own works was put together, I select the raven as
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  Speaker 1: most generally known. It is my design to render it
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  Speaker 1: manifest that no one point in its composition is referable
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  Speaker 1: either to accident or intuition. That the work proceeded a
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  Speaker 1: step by step to its completion with the precision and
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  Speaker 1: rigid consequence of a mathematical problem. Let us dismiss as
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  Speaker 1: irrelevant to the poem. Per se the circumstance, or say,
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  Speaker 1: the necessity, which in the first place gave rise to
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  Speaker 1: the intention of composing a poem that would suit at
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  Speaker 1: once the popular and the critical taste. We commence then
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  Speaker 1: with this intention. The initial consideration was that of extent.
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  Speaker 1: If any literary work is too long to be read
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  Speaker 1: at one citty, we must be content to dispense with
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  Speaker 1: the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression. For
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  Speaker 1: if two sittings be required, the affairs of the world interfere,
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  Speaker 1: and everything like. Totality is at once destroyed. But since
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  Speaker 1: etceideries parabus, no poets can afford to dispense with anything
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  Speaker 1: that may advance his design. It but remains to be
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  Speaker 1: seen whether there is an extent can the advantage to
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  Speaker 1: counterbalance the loss of unity which attends it? Here I
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  Speaker 1: say no at once. What we term a long poem
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  Speaker 1: is in fact merely a succession of brief ones, that
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  Speaker 1: is to say, of brief poetical effects. It is needless
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  Speaker 1: to demonstrate that a poem is such only inasmuch as
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  Speaker 1: it intensely excites by elevating the soul, and all intense
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  Speaker 1: excitements are through a psychical necessity brief. For this reason,
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  Speaker 1: at least one half of the paradise lost is essentially prose,
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  Speaker 1: a succession of poetical excitements interspersed inevitably with corresponding depressions,
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  Speaker 1: the whole being deprived through the extremeness of its length
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  Speaker 1: of the vastly important artistic element totality or unity of effect.
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  Speaker 1: It appears evident, then, that there is a distinct limit
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  Speaker 1: as regards length to all works of literary art, the
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  Speaker 1: limit of a single sitting, and that although in certain
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  Speaker 1: classes of prose composition, such as Robinson Crusoe demanding no unity,
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  Speaker 1: this limit may be advantageously overpassed, it can never properly
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  Speaker 1: be overpassed in a poem. Within this limit, the extent
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  Speaker 1: of a poem may be made to bear mathematical relation
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  Speaker 1: to its merit, in other words, to the excitement or
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  Speaker 1: elevation again, in other words, to the degree of the
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  Speaker 1: true poetical effect which it is capable of inducing. For
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  Speaker 1: it is clear that the brevity must be in direct
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  Speaker 1: ratio to the intensity of the intended effect. This with
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  Speaker 1: one proviso that a certain degree of duration is absolutely
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  Speaker 1: requisite for the production of any effect at all. Holding
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  Speaker 1: in view these considerations as well as that degree of excitement,
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  Speaker 1: which I deemed not above the popular while not below
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  Speaker 1: the critical taste, I reached at once what I conceived
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  Speaker 1: the proper length for my intended poem, a length of
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  Speaker 1: about one hundred lines. It is in fact one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and eight. My next thought concerned the choice of an
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  Speaker 1: impression or effect to be conveyed, And here I may
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  Speaker 1: as well observe that throughout the construction I kept steadily
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  Speaker 1: in view the design of rendering the work universally appreciable.
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  Speaker 1: I should be carried too far out of my immediate
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  Speaker 1: topic were I to demonstrate a point upon which I
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  Speaker 1: have repeatedly insisted, and which with the poetical stands not
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  Speaker 1: in the slightest need of demonstration. The point I mean
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  Speaker 1: that beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem.
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  Speaker 1: A few words, however, in elucidation of my real meaning,
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  Speaker 1: which some of my friends have evinced, a disposition to misrepresent.
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  Speaker 1: That pleasure, which is at once the most intense, the
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  Speaker 1: most elevating, and the most pure, is I believe found
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  Speaker 1: in the contemplation of the beautiful. When indeed men speak
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  Speaker 1: of beauty, they mean precisely not a quality, as is supposed,
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  Speaker 1: but an effect. They refer, in short, just to that
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  Speaker 1: intense and pure elevation of soul, not of intellect or
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  Speaker 1: of heart, upon which I have commented, and which is
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  Speaker 1: experienced in consequence of contemplating the beautiful. Now I designate
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  Speaker 1: beauty as the province of the poem merely because it
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  Speaker 1: is an obvious rule of art that effects should be
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  Speaker 1: made to spring from direct causes, that objects should be
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  Speaker 1: attained through means best adapted for their attainment. No one
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  Speaker 1: as yet having been weak enough to deny that the
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  Speaker 1: peculiar elevation alluded to is most readily attained in the poem. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the object truth, or the satisfaction of the intellect, and
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  Speaker 1: the object passion or the excitement of the heart, are,
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  Speaker 1: although attainable to a certain extent in poetry, far more
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  Speaker 1: readily attainable in prose. Truth in fact demands a precision,
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  Speaker 1: and passion a homeliness the truly passionate will comprehend me
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  Speaker 1: which are absolutely antagonistic to that beauty, which I maintain
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  Speaker 1: is the excitement or pleasurable elevation of the soul. It
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  Speaker 1: by no means follows from anything here said that passion
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  Speaker 1: or even truth may not be introduced and even profitably,
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  Speaker 1: introduced into a poem, for they may serve in elucidation
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  Speaker 1: or aid the general effect as to discords any music.
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  Speaker 1: By contrast, but the true artist will always contrive first
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  Speaker 1: to tone them into proper subservience to the predominant aim,
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  Speaker 1: and secondly to veil them as far as possible in
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  Speaker 1: that beauty which is the atmosphere and the essence of
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  Speaker 1: the poem. Regarding then beauty as my province, my next
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  Speaker 1: question referred to the tone of its highest manifestation, and
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  Speaker 1: all experience has shown that this tone is one of sadness.
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  Speaker 1: Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites
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  Speaker 1: the sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy is thus the most
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  Speaker 1: legitimate of all the poetical tones. The length, the provence,
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  Speaker 1: and the tone being thus determined, I betook myself to
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  Speaker 1: ordinary induction with the view of obtaining some artistic piquancy
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  Speaker 1: which might serve me as a keynote in the construction
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  Speaker 1: of the poem, some pivot upon which the whole structure
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  Speaker 1: might turn in carefully thinking over all the usual artistic effects,
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  Speaker 1: or more properly points in the theatrical sense. I did
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  Speaker 1: not fail to perceive immediately that no one had been
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  Speaker 1: so universally employed as that of the refrain. The universality
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  Speaker 1: of its employment sufficed to assure me of its intrinsic value,
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  Speaker 1: and spared me the necessity of submitting it to analysis.
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  Speaker 1: I considered it, however, with regard to its susceptibility of improvement,
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  Speaker 1: and soon saw it to be in a primitive condition.
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  Speaker 1: As commonly used, the refrain or burden not only as
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  Speaker 1: limited to lyric versts, but depends for its impression upon
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  Speaker 1: the force of monotone, both in sound and thought. The
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  Speaker 1: pleasure is deduced solely from the sense of identity of repetition.
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  Speaker 1: I resolved to diversify and so heighten the Aene effect
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  Speaker 1: by adhering in general to the monotone of sound, while
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  Speaker 1: I continually varied that of thought. That is to say,
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  Speaker 1: I determined to produce continuously novel effects by the variation
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  Speaker 1: of the application of the refrain, the refrain itself remaining
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  Speaker 1: for the most part unvaried. These points being settled, I
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  Speaker 1: next bethought me of the nature of my refrain. Since
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  Speaker 1: its application was to be repeatedly varied, it was clear
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  Speaker 1: that the refrain itself must be brief, for there would
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  Speaker 1: have been an insurmountable difficulty in frequent variations of application
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  Speaker 1: in any sentence. Of length in proportion to the brevity
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  Speaker 1: of the sentence would of course be the facility of
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  Speaker 1: the variation. This led me at once to a single
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  Speaker 1: word as the best refrain. The question now arose as
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  Speaker 1: to the character of the word. Having made up my
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  Speaker 1: mind to a refrain, the division of the poem into
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  Speaker 1: stanzas was of course a corollary the refrain forming the
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  Speaker 1: close of each stanza. That such a close to have
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  Speaker 1: force must be sonorous and susceptible of protracted emphasis, admitted
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  Speaker 1: no doubt, and these considerations inevitably led me to the
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  Speaker 1: long o as the most sonorous vow, in connection with
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  Speaker 1: r as the most producible consonant. The sound of the
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  Speaker 1: refrained being thus determined, it became necessary to select a
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  Speaker 1: word embodying this sound, and at the same time, in
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  Speaker 1: the fullest possible keeping with that melancholy which I had
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  Speaker 1: predetermined as the tone of the poem. In such a search,
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  Speaker 1: it would have been absolutely impossible to overlook the word nevermore.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, it was the very first which presented itself.
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  Speaker 1: The next desiderodum was a pretext for the continuous use
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  Speaker 1: of the one word nevermore. In observing the difficulty which
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  Speaker 1: I at once found in inventing a sufficiently plausible reason
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  Speaker 1: for its continuous repetition, I did not fail to perceive
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  Speaker 1: that this difficulty arose solely from the pre assumption that
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  Speaker 1: the word was to be so continuously or monotonously spoken
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  Speaker 1: by a human being. I did not fail to perceive,
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  Speaker 1: in short, that the difficulty lay in the reconciliation of
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  Speaker 1: this monotony with the exercise of reason on the part
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  Speaker 1: of the creature repeating the word. Here then immediately arose
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  Speaker 1: the idea of a non reasoning creature capable of speech,
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  Speaker 1: and very naturally a parrot in the first instance, suggested itself,
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  Speaker 1: but was superseded forthwith by a raven, as equally capable
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  Speaker 1: of speech, and infinitely more in keeping with the intended tone,
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  Speaker 1: I had now gone so far as the conception of
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  Speaker 1: a raven the bird of ill omen monotonously repeating the
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  Speaker 1: one word never more. At the conclusion of each stanza
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  Speaker 1: in a poem of melancholy tone and in length about
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  Speaker 1: one hundred lines, now never losing sight of the object's
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  Speaker 1: supremeness or perfection at all points. I asked myself, of
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  Speaker 1: all melancholy topics, what, according to the universal understanding of mankind,
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  Speaker 1: is the most melancholy? Death? Was the obvious reply. And
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  Speaker 1: when I said, is this most melancholy of topics most poetical?
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  Speaker 1: From what I've already explained at some length, the answer
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  Speaker 1: here also is obvious when it most closely allies itself
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  Speaker 1: to beauty. The death, then, of a beautiful woman is
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  Speaker 1: unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world. And equally,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for
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  Speaker 1: such a topic are those of a bereaved lover. I
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  Speaker 1: had now to combine the two ideas of a lover
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  Speaker 1: lamenting his deceased mistress and a raven continuously repeating the
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  Speaker 1: word nevermore. I had to combine these bearing in mind
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  Speaker 1: my design of varying at every turn the application of
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  Speaker 1: the word repeated. But the only intelligible mode of such
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  Speaker 1: combination is that of imagining the raven employing the word
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  Speaker 1: in answer to the queries of the lover. And here
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  Speaker 1: it was that I saw at once the opportunity afforded
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  Speaker 1: for the effect on which I had been depending, that
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  Speaker 1: is to say, the effect of the variation of application.
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  Speaker 1: I saw that I could make the first query propounded
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  Speaker 1: by the lover the first query to which the raven
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  Speaker 1: should reply. Nevermore, that I could make this first query
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  Speaker 1: a commonplaced one, the second less, so, the third still less,
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  Speaker 1: and so on, until at length the lover, startled from
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  Speaker 1: his original nonchalance by the melancholy character of the word itself,
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  Speaker 1: by its frequent repetition, and by a consideration of the
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  Speaker 1: ominous reputation of the fowl that uttered it, is at
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  Speaker 1: length excited to superstition, and wildly propounds queries of a
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  Speaker 1: far different character, queries whose solution he has passionately at heart,
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  Speaker 1: propounds them half in superstition and half in that species
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  Speaker 1: of despair which delights in self torture. Propounds them not
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  Speaker 1: altogether because he believes in the prophetic or demoniac character
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  Speaker 1: of the bird, which reason assures him is merely repeating
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  Speaker 1: a lesson learned by Rote, but because he experiences a
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  Speaker 1: frenzied pleasure in so modeling his questions as to receive
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  Speaker 1: from the expected nevermore the most delicious, because the most
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  Speaker 1: intolerable of sorrow, perceiving the opportunity thus afforded me, or
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  Speaker 1: more strictly thus forced upon me in the progress of
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  Speaker 1: the construction, I first established in mind the climax or
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  Speaker 1: concluding query, that query to which nevermore should be in
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  Speaker 1: the last place, and answer that in reply to which
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  Speaker 1: this word nevermore would involve the utmost conceivable amount of
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  Speaker 1: sorrow and despair. Here then the poem may be said
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  Speaker 1: to have its beginning at the end where all works
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  Speaker 1: of art should begin. For it was here at this
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  Speaker 1: point of my preconsiderations that I first put pen to
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  Speaker 1: paper in the composition of the stanza. Prophet said I
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  Speaker 1: thing of evil, Prophet, Still, if bird or devil, by
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  Speaker 1: that heaven that bends above us, by that God, we
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  Speaker 1: both adore, tell this soul with sorrow laden, if within
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  Speaker 1: the distant aiden it shall clasp a sainted maiden whom
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  Speaker 1: the angels named Leonore, clasp a rare and radiant maiden
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  Speaker 1: whom the angels named Leonore. Quoth the raven never more.
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  Speaker 1: I composed this stanza at this point first that by
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  Speaker 1: establishing the climax, I might the better very and graduate,
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  Speaker 1: as regard seriousness and importance, the preceding queries of the lover.
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  Speaker 1: And secondly, that I might definitely settle the rhythm, the meter,
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  Speaker 1: and the length and general arrangement of the stanza, as
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  Speaker 1: well as graduate the stanzas which were to precede, so
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: that none of them might surpass this in rhythmical effect.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Had I been able in the subsequent composition to construct
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: more vigorous stanzas, I should, without scruple have purposely enfeebled
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: them so as not to interfere with the climatic effect.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: And here I may as well say a few words
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of the versification. My first object, as usual, was originality.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: The extent to which this has been neglected in versification
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: is one of the most unaccountable things in the world.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Admitting that there is little possibility of variety in mere rhythm,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: it is still clear that the possible varieties of meter
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: and stanza are absolutely in And yet for centuries no
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: man in verse has ever done, or ever seemed to
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: think of doing, an original thing. The fact is that originality,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: unless in minds of very unusual force, is by no
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: means a matter, as some suppose of impulse or intuition
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: in general, to be found, it must be elaborately sought.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: And although a positive merit of the highest class demands
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: in its attainment less of invention than negation. Of course,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: I pretend to no originality in either the rhythm or
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: meter of the raven. The former is strochaic, the latter
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: is octameter a catalectic, alternating with heptameter catalectic, repeated in
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: the refine of the fifth verse, and terminating with tetrameter
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: catalectic less pedantically. The feat employed throughout Troquets consists of
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: a long syllable followed by a short The first line
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: of the stanza consists of eight of these feet, the
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: second of seven and a half, in effect to thirds,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the third of eight, the fourth of seven and a half,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the fifth the same, the sixth three and a half. Now,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: each of these lines, taken individually, has been employed before,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: and what originality the raven has is in their combination
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: into stanza. Nothing even remotely approaching this combination has ever
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: been attempted. The effect of this originality of combination is
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: aided by other unusual and some altogether novel effects arising
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: from an extension of the application of the principles of
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: rhyme and alliteration. The next point to be considered was
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the mode of bringing together the lubber and the raven,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: and the first branch of this consideration was the locale.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: For this the most natural suggestion might seem to be
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: a forest or the fields. But it has always appeared
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: to me that a close the circumscription of space is
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: absolutely necessary to the effect of insulated incident. It has
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: the force of a frame to a picture. It has
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: an indisputable moral power in keeping concentrated the attention, and
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: of course must not be confounded with mere unity of place.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: I determined then to place the lover in his chamber,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: in a chamber rendered sacred to him by memories of
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: her who had frequented it. The room is represented as
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: richly furnished. This in mere pursuance of the ideas I
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: have already explained on the subject of beauty as the
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: sole true poetical thesis. The locale being thus determined, I
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: had now to introduce the bird, and the thought of
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: introducing him through the window was inevitable. The idea of
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: making the lover suppose, in the first instance, that the
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: flapping of the wings of the bird against the shutter
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: is a tapping at the door, originated in a wish
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: to increase by prolonging the reader's curiosity, and in a
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: desire to admit the incidental effect arising from the lover's
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: throwing open the door, finding all dark, and thence adopting
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: the half fancy that it was the spirit of his
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: mistress that knock. I made the night tempestuous, first to
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: account for the ravens seeking admission, and secondly for the
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: effect of contrast with the physical serenity within the chamber.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: I made the bird alight on the bust of Pallace,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: also for the effect of contrast between the marble and
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: the plumage, it being understood that the bust was absolutely
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: suggested by the bird, the bust of Pallace being chosen
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: first as most in keeping with the scholarship of the lover,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: and secondly for the sonorousness of the word pallace itself.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: About the middle of the poem. Also, I have availed
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: myself of the force of concoct dress, with a view
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: of deepening the ultimate impression. For example, an air of
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: the fantastic, approaching, as nearly to the ludicrous as was admissible,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: is given to the raven's entrance. He comes in with
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: many a flirt and flutter. Not the least obeisance made
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: he not a minute stop or stayed, ye, but with
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: In the two stanzas which follow, the design is more
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: obviously carried out. Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: fancy into smiling by the grave and stern decorum of
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: the countenance at war. Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: I said, art sure, no craven, ghastly, grim and ancient
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: raven wandering from the knightly shore. Tell me what thy
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: lordly name is on the Knight's Plutonian shore. Quoth the
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: raven nevermore much. I marveled this ungainly fowl to bear
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: discourse so plainly, though its answer little meaning, little relevancy bore.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: with such name as never more. The effect of the
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: denoument being thus provided for, I immediately drop the fantastic
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: for a tone of the most profound seriousness, this tone
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: commencing in the stanza directly following the one last quoted
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: with the line but the raven, sitting lonely on that
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: placid bust, spoke only, et cetera. From this epic. The
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: lover no longer jests, no longer sees anything even of
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the fantastic in the raven's demeanor. He speaks of him
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: as a grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: and feels the fiery eyes burning into his bosom. Score.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: This revolution of thought or fancy on the lover's part
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: is intended to induce a similar one on the part
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: of the reader, to bring the mind into a proper
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: frame for the denouement, which is now brought about as
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: rapidly and as directly as possible. With the denouement proper,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: with the raven's reply nevermore to the lover's final demand
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: if he shall meet his mistress in another world, the poem,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: in its obvious phase, that of a simple narrative, may
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: be said to have its completion. So far everything is
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: within the limits of the accountable of the real. A raven,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: having learned by wrote the single word nevermore, and having
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: escaped from the custody of its owner, is driven at midnight,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: through the violence of a storm, to seek admission at
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: a window from which a light still gleams, the chamber
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: window of a student occupied half in poor over a volume,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: half in dreaming of a beloved mistress deceased, the casement
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: being thrown open at the fluttering of the bird's wings.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: The bird itself perches on the most convenient seat, out
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: of the immediate reach of the student, who, amused by
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: the incident and the oddity of the visitor's demeanor, demands
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: of it in jest, and without looking for a reply
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: its name. The raven, addressed, answers with his customary word nevermore,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: a word which finds immediate echo in the melancholy heart
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: of the student, who, giving utterance aloud to certain thoughts
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: suggested by the occasion, is again startled by the fowl's
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: repetition of never more. The student now guesses the state
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: of the case, but is impelled, as I have before explained,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: by the human thirst for self torture, and in part
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: by superstition, to propound such queries to the bird as
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: will bring him the lover, the most of the luxury
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: of sorrow through the anticipated answer, never more with the
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: indulgence to the extreme of this self torture. The narration,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: in what I have termed its first or obvious phase,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: has a natural termination, and so far there has been
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: no overstepping of the limits of the real. But in
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: subjects so handled however skillfully, or with however vivid an
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: array of incident, there is always a certain hardness or nakedness,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: which repels the artistical eye. Two things are invariably required,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: first some amount of complexity, or more properly adaptation, and secondly,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: some amount of suggestiveness, some undercurrent, however indefinite of meaning.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: It is this ladder in especial which imparts to a
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: work of art so much of that richness to borrow
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: from colloquy, a forcible term which we are too fond
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: of confounding with the eye. It is the excess of
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: the suggested meaning. It is the rendering this the upper
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: instead of the under current of the theme, which turns
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: into prose, and that of the very flattest kind the
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: so called poetry of the so called Transcendentalists. Holding these opinions,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: I added the two concluding stanzas of the poem, their
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: suggestiveness being thus made to pervade all the narrative which
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: has preceded them. The undercurrent of meaning is rendered first
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: apparent in the lines take thy beak from out my heart,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: and take thy form from off my door, quoth the
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: raven nevermore. It will be observed that the words from
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: out my heart involve the first metaphorical expression in the poem. They,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: with the answer nevermore, dispose the mind to seek a
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: moral in all that has been previously narrated. The reader
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: begins now to regard the raven as inm blomical. But
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: it is not until the very last line of the
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: very last stanza that the intention of making him emblematical
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: of mournful and never ending remembrance is permitted distinctly to
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: be seen. And the raven, never flitting still, is sitting still,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: is sitting on the pallid bust of palace just above
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: my chamber door, and his eyes have all the seeming
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: of a demon's that is dreaming, and the lamplight o'er
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: him streaming throws his shadow on the floor, and my
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: floor shall be lifted nevermore. End of the Philosophy of Composition,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Part two of The Raven and the Philosophy of Composition
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: by Edgar Allan Poe. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: public domain. Part two The Raven. Once upon a midnight, dreary,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: while I pondered, weak and weary over a many quaint
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: and curious volume of forgotten lore. While I nodded, nearly napping,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: suddenly there came a tapping, as of some one gently rapping,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: rapping on my chamber door. Tis some visitor, I muttered,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: tapping at my chamber door. Only this and nothing more, Ah,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, and
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Eagerly I wished the morrow, vainly I had sought to
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: borrow from my books surceits of sorrow, sorrow for the
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: lost Leonore, for the rare and radiant maiden whom the
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: angels named Leonore, nameless here for evermore, and the silken, sad,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: unser and rustling of each purple curtain thrilled me, filled
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: me with fantastic terrors never felt before, So that now
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: to still the beating of my heart, I stood, repeating,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: tis some visitor in treating entrance at my chamber door,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door. This
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: is it, and nothing more. Presently my soul grew stronger, hesitating.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Then no longer sir, said I or madam. Truly your forgiveness,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: I implore. But the fact is I was napping, and
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: so gently you came rapping, and so faintly you came
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: tapping tapping at my chamber door. That I scarce was
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: sure I heard you here. I opened wide the door.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Darkness there and nothing more. Deep into that darkness, peering long,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: ever dared to dream before. But the silence was unbroken,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: and the stillness gave no token, And the only word
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: there spoken was the whispered word la noor. This I whispered,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: and an echo murmured back the word la noor. Merely
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: this and nothing more, back into the chamber, turning, Oh,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: my soul within me, burning soon again I heard a
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: tapping somewhat louder than before. Surely, said I, surely that
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: is something at my window lattice. Let me see then
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: what thereat is, and this mystery explore. Let my heart
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: be still a moment, And this mystery explore tis the wind,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: and nothing more open Here I flung the shutter, when
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: with many a flirt and flutter in there stepped a
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: stately raven of the saintly days of yore. Not the
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: least obeisance made he not a minute stopped or stady,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: but with mien of Lord or lady, perched above my
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: chamber door, perched upon a bust of palace just above
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: my chamber door, perched and sat, And nothing more then
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling by
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Though thy crest be shorn and shaven. Thou, I said,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: art sure, no craven, ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: from the knightly shore. Tell me what thy lordly name
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: is on the Knight's Plutonian shore. Quoth the raven never
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: more much? I marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: so plainly, though its answer little meaning, little relevancy bore,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: with such name as never more. But the raven, sitting
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: lonely on the placid bust, spoke only that one word,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: as if his soul in that one word he did
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: outpour nothing further than he uttered, not a feather. Then
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: he fluttered till I, scarcely more than muttered other friends
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: have flown before. On the morrow, he will leave me
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: as my hopes have flown before. Then, the bird said,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: and never more. Startled at the stillness broken by reply
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: so aptly sproken doubtless, said I what it utters is
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: only its stalk and store caught from some unhappy master,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: whom unmerciful disaster followed fast, and followed faster till his
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: songs one burden bore till the dirges of his hope,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: that melancholy burden bore of never never more. But the
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling straight,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: bust and door. Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: myself to linking fancy and the fancy, thinking what this
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: ominous bird of your, What this grim ungainly, ghastly, gaunt
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: and ominous bird of your meant in croaking? Nevermore? This
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing to
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: the fowl, whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: reclining on the cushion's velvet, lining that the lamp light gloated,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp like gloating oar,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: she shall press ah never more? Then, methought the air
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer swung by seraphim,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor. Wretch, I cried,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Thy God, hath lent thee by these angels. He has
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: sent thee respite, respite and nepenthe from thy memories of
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: Lenore quaff o quaff this kind napenthe, and forget this
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: lost Leonore quoth the raven never more, Prophet said, I
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: thing of evil, Prophet. Still, if bird or devil, whether
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: tempter scent, or whether tempest, toss thee here ashore, desolate,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: yet all undaunted on this desert land, enchanted on this
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: home by horror, haunted, Tell me truly, I implore, Is
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: there is there balm in gilead, Tell me tell me
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: I implore, quoth the raven nevermore? Prophet said, I thing
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: of evil? Prophet. Still, if bird or devil, by that
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: heaven that bends above us, by that god, we both adore,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if within the distant
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: aidan it shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: name lenor clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: angels name Leonore. Quoth the raven nevermore? Be that word
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: our sign of parting, bird or fiend, I shrieked at starting,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Get thee back into the tempest and the knight's plutonian shore,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Leave no black plume as a token of that lie
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: thy soul hath spoken, Leave my loneliness unbroken, Quit the
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: bust above my door, Take thy beak from out my heart,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: and take thy form from off my door, quoth the
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Raven nevermore. And the raven, never flitting still, is sitting still,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: is sitting on the pallid bust of palace, just above
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: my chamber door, And his eyes have all the seeming
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: of a demon's that is dreaming. And the lamplight o'er him,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: streaming throws his shadow on the floor, And my soul
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: shall be lifted nevermore. End of Part two. End of
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: The Raven and the Philosophy of Composition by Edgar Allan
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: Poe