The Philosophy of Composition Read online

  Quoth the Raven- "Nevermore."

  I composed this stanza, at this point, first that, by establishing the climax, I might the better vary

  and graduate, as regards seriousness and importance, the preceding queries of the lover, and

  secondly, that I might definitely settle the rhythm, the metre, and the length and general

  arrangement of the stanza, as well as graduate the stanzas which were to precede, so that none of

  them might surpass this in rhythmical effect. Had I been able in the subsequent composition to

  construct more vigorous stanzas I should without scruple have purposely enfeebled them so as

  not to interfere with the climacteric effect.

  And here I may as well say a few words of the versification. My first object (as usual) was

  originality. The extent to which this has been neglected in versification is one of the most

  unaccountable things in the world. Admitting that there is little possibility of variety in mere

  rhythm, it is still clear that the possible varieties of metre and stanza are absolutely infinite, and

  yet, for centuries, no man, in verse, has ever done, or ever seemed to think of doing, an original

  thing. The fact is that originality (unless in minds of very unusual force) is by no means a matter,

  as some suppose, of impulse or intuition. In general, to be found, it must be elaborately sought,

  and although a positive merit of the highest class, demands in its attainment less of invention

  than negation.

  Of course I pretend to no originality in either the rhythm or metre of the "Raven." The former is

  trochaic- the latter is octametre acatalectic, alternating with heptametre catalectic repeated in the

  refrain of the fifth verse, and terminating with tetrametre catalectic. Less pedantically the feet

  employed throughout (trochees) consist of a long syllable followed by a short, the first line of the

  stanza consists of eight of these feet, the second of seven and a half (in effect two-thirds), the

  third of eight, the fourth of seven and a half, the fifth the same, the sixth three and a half. Now,

  each of these lines taken individually has been employed before, and what originality the

  "Raven" has, is in their combination into stanza; nothing even remotely approaching this has

  ever been attempted. The effect of this originality of combination is aided by other unusual and

  some altogether novel effects, arising from an extension of the application of the principles of

  rhyme and alliteration.

  The next point to be considered was the mode of bringing together the lover and the Raven- and

  the first branch of this consideration was the locale. For this the most natural suggestion might

  seem to be a forest, or the fields- but it has always appeared to me that a close circumscription of

  space is absolutely necessary to the effect of insulated incident- it has the force of a frame to a

  picture. It has an indisputable moral power in keeping concentrated the attention, and, of course,

  must not be confounded with mere unity of place.

  I determined, then, to place the lover in his chamber- in a chamber rendered sacred to him by

  memories of her who had frequented it. The room is represented as richly furnished- this in mere

  pursuance of the ideas I have already explained on the subject of Beauty, as the sole true poetical

  thesis.

  The locale being thus determined, I had now to introduce the bird- and the thought of introducing

  him through the window was inevitable. The idea of making the lover suppose, in the first

  instance, that the flapping of the wings of the bird against the shutter, is a "tapping" at the door,

  originated in a wish to increase, by prolonging, the reader's curiosity, and in a desire to admit the

  incidental effect arising from the lover's throwing open the door, finding all dark, and thence

  adopting the half-fancy that it was the spirit of his mistress that knocked.

  I made the night tempestuous, first to account for the Raven's seeking admission, and secondly,

  for the effect of contrast with the (physical) serenity within the chamber.

  I made the bird alight on the bust of Pallas, also for the effect of contrast between the marble and

  the plumage- it being understood that the bust was absolutely suggested by the bird- the bust of

  Pallas being chosen, first, as most in keeping with the scholarship of the lover, and secondly, for

  the sonorousness of the word, Pallas, itself.

  About the middle of the poem, also, I have availed myself of the force of contrast, with a view of

  deepening the ultimate impression. For example, an air of the fantastic- approaching as nearly to

  the ludicrous as was admissible- is given to the Raven's entrance. He comes in "with many a flirt

  and flutter."

  Not the least obeisance made he- not a moment stopped or stayed he,

  But with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door.

  In the two stanzas which follow, the design is more obviously carried out:-

  Then this ebony bird, beguiling my sad fancy into smiling

  By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,

  "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no

  craven,

  Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore-

  Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore?"

  Quoth the Raven- "Nevermore."

  Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,

  Though its answer little meaning- little relevancy bore;

  For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being

  Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door-

  Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,

  With such name as "Nevermore."

  The effect of the denouement being thus provided for, I immediately drop the fantastic for a tone

  of the most profound seriousness- this tone commencing in the stanza directly following the one

  last quoted, with the line,

  But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only, etc.

  From this epoch the lover no longer jests- no longer sees anything even of the fantastic in the

  Raven's demeanour. He speaks of him as a "grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of

  yore," and feels the "fiery eyes" burning into his "bosom's core." This revolution of thought, or fancy, on the lover's part, is intended to induce a similar one on the part of the reader- to bring

  the mind into a proper frame for the denouement- which is now brought about as rapidly and as

  directly as possible.

  With the denouement proper- with the Raven's reply, "Nevermore," to the lover's final demand if

  he shall meet his mistress in another world- the poem, in its obvious phase, that of a simple

  narrative, may be said to have its completion. So far, everything is within the limits of the

  accountable- of the real. A raven, having learned by rote the single word "Nevermore," and

  having escaped from the custody of its owner, is driven at midnight, through the violence of a

  storm, to seek admission at a window from which a light still gleams- the chamber-window of a

  student, occupied half in poring over a volume, half in dreaming of a beloved mistress deceased.

  The casement being thrown open at the fluttering of the bird's wings, the bird itself perches on

  the most convenient seat out of the immediate reach of the student, who amused by the incident

  and the oddity of the visitor's demeanour, demands of it, in jest and without looking for a re
ply,

  its name. The raven addressed, answers with its customary word, "Nevermore"- a word which

  finds immediate echo in the melancholy heart of the student, who, giving utterance aloud to

  certain thoughts suggested by the occasion, is again startled by the fowl's repetition of

  "Nevermore." The student now guesses the state of the case, but is impelled, as I have before

  explained, by the human thirst for self-torture, and in part by superstition, to propound such

  queries to the bird as will bring him, the lover, the most of the luxury of sorrow, through the

  anticipated answer, "Nevermore." With the indulgence, to the extreme, of this self-torture, the

  narration, in what I have termed its first or obvious phase, has a natural termination, and so far

  there has been no overstepping of the limits of the real.

  But in subjects so handled, however skillfully, or with however vivid an array of incident, there

  is always a certain hardness or nakedness which repels the artistical eye. Two things are

  invariably required- first, some amount of complexity, or more properly, adaptation; and,

  secondly, some amount of suggestiveness- some under-current, however indefinite, of meaning.

  It is this latter, in especial, which imparts to a work of art so much of that richness (to borrow

  from colloquy a forcible term), which we are too fond of confounding with the ideal. It is the

  excess of the suggested meaning- it is the rendering this the upper instead of the under-current of

  the theme- which turns into prose (and that of the very flattest kind), the so-called poetry of the

  so-called transcendentalists.

  Holding these opinions, I added the two concluding stanzas of the poem- their suggestiveness

  being thus made to pervade all the narrative which has preceded them. The under-current of

  meaning is rendered first apparent in the line-

  "Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my

  door!"

  Quoth the Raven "Nevermore!"

  It will be observed that the words, "from out my heart," involve the first metaphorical expression

  in the poem. They, with the answer, "Nevermore," dispose the mind to seek a moral in all that

  has been previously narrated. The reader begins now to regard the Raven as emblematical- but it

  is not until the very last line of the very last stanza that the intention of making him emblematical

  of Mournful and never ending Remembrance is permitted distinctly to be seen:

  And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting,

  On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

  And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming,

  And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

  And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

  Shall be lifted- nevermore.

  FB2 document info

  Document ID: b2281378-a20c-416b-adfd-093f1bc59491

  Document version: 1

  Document creation date: 30.7.2012

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  Document authors :

  Edgar Allan Poe

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