The Raven
A man is visited at night by a bird that says one word, and the poem turns that word into a machine for torture. Poe published it in 1845 and became famous overnight; he then wrote an essay explaining exactly how he had constructed it, which is either illuminating or a hoax.
The poem is melodramatic and its rhythm is hypnotic, and it is best read aloud. It is also a useful introduction to Poe's method: a single effect, calculated and repeated until it becomes unbearable. The collection around it shows the same technique applied to different moods.
Public-domain status
First published in 1845. In the United States, works published before 1930 are in the public domain. In the European Union the general term is the life of the author plus 70 years; Edgar Allan Poe died in 1849, so this work has been free to republish there since 1920.
Read the text free
- Project Gutenberg, ebook no. 1065 — plain text, EPUB and Kindle, checked by us
- Internet Archive — scanned editions and free audiobooks
- Open Library — edition history and borrowable copies
Keep reading
- Leaves of Grass — Walt Whitman, 1855
- The Canterbury Tales — Geoffrey Chaucer, 1400
- Troilus and Criseyde — Geoffrey Chaucer, 1385
- Childe Harold's Pilgrimage — Lord Byron, 1812
- Reading lists — 19 ways through the collection
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