Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven' first published - January 29, 1845

On this day in 1845, Edgar Allan Poe's narrative poem "The Raven" was first published. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey I'm Eves, and you're listening to This
Day in History Class, a podcast that proves history is
always happening. Today is January. The day was January Edgar

(00:30):
Allan Poe's narrative poem The Raven was first published. The
Raven is now one of the most memorable English language poems.
Pope was an American writer born in Boston. He's best
known for his short stories in poetry, but he also
wrote a novel, play and essays. His work is marked
by mystery, horror, the maccabre, and supernatural elements. He wrote

(00:55):
detective fiction that laid the foundation for modern works in
the genre. In the years leading up to eighteen forty five,
Pope published many works, including The Fall of the House
of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Mask of
the Writ Death, and The Tell Tale Heart. He worked
for magazines like The Southern Literary Messenger, Burton's Gentleman's Magazine,

(01:17):
and Graham's Magazine. His detective tales did earn him some money,
but Pope was still struggling professionally and personally. Though he
was being published and winning prizes for his work. A
lot of his writing was going unnoticed, and he was
not earning enough money to live comfortably. He also had
a troubled relationship with alcohol, though it's unclear whether he

(01:40):
was actually dealing with alcoholism, and his wife, Virginia, who
was also his younger cousin, was getting more ill with tuberculosis.
Affected by all of his misfortunes, he moved to New
York in eighteen forty four. He began writing a weekly
column for the Columbia Spy, and he became an editor
for the New York Evening Mirror. He even managed to

(02:03):
purchase a small house, and on January five, The Raven
was published in The Evening Mirror. Poe had spent four
years writing and revising the poem. This time his work
was recognized. The Raven is about a narrator who is
grieving over his lost love Lenore. On a stormy December night,

(02:23):
A raven that only says the word nevermore visits the narrator.
In the end, the raven remains sitting above his room store,
while the narrator lives in its shadow. The gloomy poem
is made up of eighteen six line stanzas. In November
of eighteen forty five, The Raven and Other Poems, a
collection of post poetry, was published. In his eighteen forty

(02:46):
six essay The Philosophy of Composition, Poe described the choices
he made in composing The Raven. He argued that brevity,
methodical writing, and what he called the unity of effect
our key to get writing. He wrote about why he
chose to depict the bus of Palace in the poem,
how he chose the word never more purposefully, and how

(03:08):
he wrote it to quote suit at once the popular
and the critical taste. Though the poem garnered po fame,
it was not a boon to him financially. He did
publish other works, including The Cask of Amatiado and an
essay called Eureka, and many of his stories were translated
and earned critical acclaim in France. But Poe's wife, Virginia,

(03:30):
died in January of eighty seven, so he formed more
relationships platonic and romantic. He too fell ill. Poe died
in October of eighteen forty nine. The cause of his
death is unknown. The Raven inspired many later works and
has been referenced throughout different mediums in popular culture. I'm

(03:52):
Eve Steff Coote and hopefully you know a little more
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(04:14):
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