Poe's essay, "The Philosophy of Composition," was strictly public relations "damage control," intended to bolster his lie that he had written the poem in the first place. What he did, was simply to reverse-engineer the poem. "The Raven" was actually written by Mathew Franklin Whittier, younger brother of poet John Greenleaf Whittier, about a real-life event while he was grieving for his late wife, Abby, in December of 1841. Mathew was the one who published it in the February, 1845 edition of "American Review" under the pseudonym "---- Quarles." Mathew had apparently shared a copy of the poem with Poe privately in 1842. When Poe, a reviewer for the daily newspaper, the NY "Evening Mirror," obtained his usual advance copy of "American Review," he lied to his editor, saying it was his poem, and that he supposedly had permission to scoop that monthly literary journal in his daily paper (an absurdity--no editor would have granted that permission). Poe mysteriously left the "Evening Mirror" soon after--probably, he was fired for lying about it. Mathew was not in a position to defend himself publicly, but left many broad hints about it in his subsequent writing. "The Philosophy of Composition" is sheer B.S. from one end to the other. The poem could not possibly have been written that way. See my paper, "Evidence that Edgar Allan Poe Stole 'The Raven' from Mathew Franklin Whittier," or a more condensed version intended for scholarly journals, entitled "Edgar Allan Poe’s Plagiarism of Mathew Franklin Whittier’s Poem, “The Raven," each of which can be downloaded from the following links. They can also be found by searching for each paper's' title on Academia.edu. www.ial.goldthread.com/MFW_The_Raven.pdf www.ial.goldthread.com/MFW_The_Raven_condensed.pdf
