The Bibliothecary

We begin Raven week with Edgar Allan Poe's poem itself.   Here it is as first published in the American Review, February 1845.  The Evening Mirror edition of the poem is dated Jan 29, but copies of the Amer Rev periodical were most likely on the streets in mid-January.  If you haven't read it in a while (and you probably haven't) then give it a read.  We're so used to hearing parodies of it that the original itself is often ignored or forgotten.  It's a wonderfully tense dramatic narrative. 

You can listen to an NPR piece on the creation of the poem.  At this link you can also hear Basil Rathbone's wonderful reading of the poem (my favorite version) or you can just click on the YouTube clip below.  Each day I'll post another version.