Our present text, therefore, while substantially that of
1845, is somewhat modified by the poet's later reading, and is, I think,
the most correct and effective version of this single poem. The most
radical change from the earliest version appeared, however, in the volume
in 1845; the eleventh stanza originally having contained these lines,
faulty in rhyme and otherwise a blemish on the poem:
"Caught from some unhappy master, whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster--so, when Hope he would adjure,
Stern Despair returned, instead of the sweet Hope he dared adjure--
That sad answer, 'Nevermore!'"
It would be well if other, and famous, poets could be as sure of making
their changes always improvements. Poe constantly rehandled his scanty show
of verse, and usually bettered it. _The Raven_ was the first of the few
poems which he nearly brought to completion before printing. It may be that
those who care for poetry lost little by his death. Fluent in prose, he
never wrote verse for the sake of making a poem. When a refrain of image
haunted him, the lyric that resulted was the inspiration, as he himself
said, of a passion, not of a purpose. This was at intervals so rare as
almost to justify the Fairfield theory that each was the product of a
nervous crisis.
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