Page:Edgar Allan Poe - how to know him.djvu/206
1 86 EDGAR ALLAN POE �I determined, then, to place the lover in his cham- ber in a chamber rendered sacred to him by memories of her who had frequented it. The room is represented as richly furnished this in mere pursu- ance of the ideas I have already explained on the sub- ject of Beauty, as the sole true poetical thesis. �The locale being thus determined, I had now to introduce the bird and the thought of introducing him through the window, was inevitable. The idea of making the lover suppose, in the first instance, that the flapping of the wings of the bird against the shutter, is a "tapping" at the door, originated in a wish to increase, by prolonging, the reader's curiosity, and in a desire to admit the incidental effect arising from the lover's throwing open the door, finding all dark, and thence adopting the half-fancy that it was the spirit of his mistress that knocked. �I made the night tempestuous, first, to account for the Raven's seeking admission, and secondly, for the effect of contrast with the (physical) serenity within the chamber. �I made the bird alight on the bust of Pallas, also for the effect of contrast between the marble and the plumage it being understood that the bust was ab- solutely suggested by the bird the bust of Pallas being chosen, first, as most in keeping with the schol- arship of the lover, and, secondly, for the sonorousness of the word, Pallas, itself. �About the middle of the poem, also, I have availed myself of the force of contrast, with a view of deepen- ing the ultimate impression. For example, an air of the fantastic approaching as nearly to the ludicrous ��� �
