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Encyclopedia entry: Raven, The
- Article from:
- The Oxford Companion to American Literature
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Companion to American Literature 1995, originally published by Oxford University Press 1995. (Hide copyright information)
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Raven, The,
poem by
Poe
, the title piece of a volume (1845), was several times revised in later publications. To Poe's account of writing it, in “
The Philosophy of Composition
,” must be added the influence upon the meter of Mrs. Browning's
Lady Geraldine's Courtship
and Chivers's
Isadore
. The poem consists of 18 six‐line stanzas, the first five lines of each being in trochaic octameter, and the sixth line trochaic tetrameter. The rhythm is varied by frequent syncopation, caused by effects of double rhyme and alliteration. The rhyme pattern is
abcbbb,
in which the
b
rhymes are based on the constant refrain, “Nevermore,” a word that ...