<P> Poe capitalized on the success of "The Raven" by following it up with his essay "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846), in which he detailed the poem's creation . His description of its writing is probably exaggerated, though the essay serves as an important overview of Poe's literary theory . He explains that every component of the poem is based on logic: the raven enters the chamber to avoid a storm (the "midnight dreary" in the "bleak December"), and its perch on a pallid white bust was to create visual contrast against the dark black bird . No aspect of the poem was an accident, he claims, but is based on total control by the author . Even the term "Nevermore", he says, is used because of the effect created by the long vowel sounds (though Poe may have been inspired to use the word by the works of Lord Byron or Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). Poe had experimented with the long o sound throughout many other poems: "no more" in "Silence", "evermore" in "The Conqueror Worm". The topic itself, Poe says, was chosen because "the death...of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world ." Told from "the lips...of a bereaved lover" is best suited to achieve the desired effect . Beyond the poetics of it, the lost Lenore may have been inspired by events in Poe's own life as well, either to the early loss of his mother, Eliza Poe, or the long illness endured by his wife, Virginia . Ultimately, Poe considered "The Raven" an experiment to "suit at once the popular and critical taste", accessible to both the mainstream and high literary worlds . It is unknown how long Poe worked on "The Raven"; speculation ranges from a single day to ten years . Poe recited a poem believed to be an early version with an alternate ending of "The Raven" in 1843 in Saratoga, New York . An early draft may have featured an owl . </P> <P> In the summer of 1844, when the poem was likely written, Poe, his wife, and mother - in - law were boarding at the farmhouse of Patrick Brennan . The location of the house, which was demolished in 1888, has been a disputed point and, while there are two different plaques marking its supposed location on West 84th Street, it most likely stood where 206 West 84th Street is now . </P> <P> In part due to its dual printing, "The Raven" made Edgar Allan Poe a household name almost immediately, and turned Poe into a national celebrity . Readers began to identify poem with poet, earning Poe the nickname "The Raven". The poem was soon widely reprinted, imitated, and parodied . Though it made Poe popular in his day, it did not bring him significant financial success . As he later lamented, "I have made no money . I am as poor now as ever I was in my life--except in hope, which is by no means bankable". </P> <P> The New World said, "Everyone reads the Poem and praises it...justly, we think, for it seems to us full of originality and power ." The Pennsylvania Inquirer reprinted it with the heading "A Beautiful Poem". Elizabeth Barrett wrote to Poe, "Your' Raven' has produced a sensation, a fit o' horror, here in England . Some of my friends are taken by the fear of it and some by the music . I hear of persons haunted by' Nevermore' ." Poe's popularity resulted in invitations to recite "The Raven" and to lecture--in public and at private social gatherings . At one literary salon, a guest noted, "to hear (Poe) repeat the Raven...is an event in one's life ." It was recalled by someone who experienced it, "He would turn down the lamps till the room was almost dark, then standing in the center of the apartment he would recite...in the most melodious of voices...So marvelous was his power as a reader that the auditors would be afraid to draw breath lest the enchanted spell be broken ." </P>

Who created the drawings in the raven room