The Crow

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven is one of the more notorious poems of all time. For the uninitiated, the basic story is this: a raven visits the narrator, who is mourning his lost love, and repeats the word “Nevermore” until the narrator loses it. (“Nevermore” seems to be an eternal drain of despair opening below the narrator’s soul).

Poe’s poem has a unique form: trochaic octameter with an intricate rhyme scheme that includes internal rhymes. Poe’s masterful use of this form gives the poem a hypnotic feel that enhances the dark, supernatural story.

I hate crows. They’re horrid, thieving, guttural-sounding pests. They drive me nuts. That’s why writing a poem about a crow based on The Raven made perfect sense to me 😆 I followed Poe’s trochaic octameter form, including the crazy rhyme scheme. Having wrangled with this beastly form, I can tell you that’s what drove Poe insane, not the talking bird. I didn’t quite equal Poe’s 18 stanzas, but I reached 13, which seemed apropos for such an ill-omened subject.

“The Crow” will appear in a book I plan to self-publish this year, The Anonymity of Waiting.