THE RAVEN. Edgar Allan Poe didn’t earn a cent from his most famous poem, The Raven, having published it first in a newspaper for free and thereby losing any and all future copyright monies. The original title of The Raven was To Lenore but upon having dinner with Charles Dickens and learning of the great writer`s recently deceased pet bird, which just happened to be a raven, Poe reworked the poem to include the black bird as a central figure.

Poe wrote The Raven with the intent of creating what he called an “adult fairy tale” and when asked why he didn`t start the poem with the traditional “Once upon a time” but used “Once upon a midnight dreary” Poe replied, “In my `time` it`s always `midnight dreary.`” All of Poe`s stories took place at night, or if a day scene was required, it was the bleakest, foulest day of the year.

art by Amir Taqi