Today in History: Edgar Allan Poe’s poem ‘The Raven’ is published
Poe's work was often extremely dark and macabre, which became his signature before his passing.
On this day in 1845, Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem The Raven, which begins with the line “Once upon a midnight dreary,” was published in the New York Evening Mirror.
Poe’s dark and macabre work reflected his own tumultuous and difficult life. Born in Boston in 1809, Poe was orphaned at the age of three and went to live with the family of a Richmond, Virginia, businessman. Poe enrolled in a military academy, but was expelled for gambling. He later studied briefly at the University of Virginia.
In 1827, Poe self-published a collection of poems. Six years later, his short story MS Found in a Bottle won $50 in a story contest. He edited a series of literary journals, including the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, starting in 1835, and Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine in Philadelphia, starting in 1839.
Poe’s excessive drinking got him fired from several positions. His macabre work, often portraying motiveless crimes and intolerable guilt that induces growing mania in his characters, was a significant influence on several European writers, such as Charles Baudelaire, Stephane Mallarme, and even Dostoyevsky.
You can read the full poem here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48860/the-raven
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