Quothing ‘The Raven’
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
So goes the most famous line from Edgar Allan Poe’s legendary 1845 narrative poem “The Raven,” about a grieving student mourning the death of his lost love—and his slow descent into madness after a mysterious talking bird visits him on a dreary December night.
It was one of more than 5,300 poems published that year in American magazines; most were immediately forgotten. But Poe’s work—known for its hypnotic rhythm, musicality, and stylized language—was a conspicuous exception. An immediate sensation, it remains one of the most iconic poems in literary history.
The factors that influenced the attention to “The Raven” from the day of its publication are the focus of Quothing “The Raven”: The First Responses to America’s Most Famous Poem, a new book by English Professor Emeritus Paul Lewis, a prominent Poe scholar and past president of the Poe Studies Association. According to the book’s publisher, Mercer University Press, Lewis addresses such questions as why “The Raven” was widely reprinted, praised, criticized, and mocked during the years between its publication in New York and Poe’s death on October 7, 1849.
In Quothing “The Raven,” Lewis brings together 29 parodies of “The Raven” published during Poe’s lifetime. The book examines why the poem inspired these parodies, which replaced Poe’s “saintly bird of yore” with a menagerie of other animals: an owl, gazelle, turkey, pig, dog, cats, rats, and bedbugs. It also explores how Poe’s reputation—as a literary brawler and harsh book reviewer who struggled with money and alcohol—factored into the reception of “The Raven.”
“The poem was instantly controversial because people associated the grieving lover in the poem with Poe himself, which explains why some of the parodies featured impoverished and intoxicated narrators,” according to Lewis.
Lewis’ book considers the literary salons where “The Raven” was discussed, the newspapers where it was reviewed, and the parodies that made fun of both the poem and its controversial author.
Paul Lewis (Caitlin Cunningham)
Quothing “The Raven,” Lewis said, “was a delightful American Studies project that began with searching archives for forgotten parodies,” which he then placed in contemporaneous contexts.
Many of “The Raven” parodies, Lewis noted, “shift down from Poe’s gothic intensity and profound mourning to a world where regular people were trying to stay warm, get a good night’s sleep, and avoid being bitten by an animal. While a few responded seriously to Poe’s treatment of mourning and loss, most deployed the formal features of ‘The Raven’ to engage with then-current controversies about such matters as racial difference, tariff policy, debtors’ prisons, public art, alcoholism, prizefighting, and immigration. On its way to global superstardom, ‘The Raven’ struck chords that have resounded from the antebellum period to our own time.”
Lewis’ book is praised as “a wonderful romp through the sea of parodies that proliferated in the wake of the publication of ‘The Raven,’” by Sandra Tomc, professor of English Language and Literature at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, author of Industry and the Creative Mind: The Eccentric Writer in American Literature and Entertainment, 1790–1860.
“He expertly guides readers through the chaotic world of Antebellum magazines and newspapers that Poe himself navigated. Lewis has written an absolutely delightful book full of both humor and wisdom about America’s most famous poem,” she said.
Quothing “The Raven” is cited as “a significant contribution to Poe scholarship and a genuine pleasure to read,” by Scott Peeples, author of The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City.
“Poe said that he wrote his most famous poem ‘for the express purpose of running,’ and Paul Lewis shows us how it ‘ran’ through 1840s pop culture and reshaped Poe’s career and reputation,” he added. “The parodies themselves are fascinating, and the context Lewis provides for them is invaluable. This book is essential to understanding how ‘The Raven’ became America’s favorite poem.”
A staunch proponent of Poe’s ties to Boston—where he was born in 1809—Lewis spearheaded a campaign to have the city reclaim Poe. In 2009, he organized a celebration of the Poe bicentennial at Boston College, created a walking tour of Poe’s Boston, and curated “The Raven in the Frog Pond” exhibition at the Boston Public Library. As the Board of Directors chair of the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston, Inc., he supported efforts to have a square at the intersection of Boylston Street and Charles Street South dedicated to Poe and install a statue of the poet there.
Lewis will sign copies of his new book on December 5 from 2-3 p.m. at the Boston Public Library. For more information, email paul.lewis@bc.edu