Seeking approval, Poe began to construct tales and stories, which succeeded in gaining the public's eye and favor (Poe 7). However, this acclaim did not make him much money, and he suffered always in debt. Settling in Baltimore, Maryland, Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia. Following the curse of his years, his young wife developed tuberculosis, and this illness would come to envelop his life and work (Poe 7).
The Raven is a masterpiece of lyrical measure, and reflects the fact that Poe was a capable mathematician (Poe 7). "Eagerly I wished the morrow;-vainly I had sought to borrow/From my books surcease of sorrow-sorrow for the lost Lenore" (Poe 12). When critics demanded to know how he crafted such a well-metered work, he replied mysteriously, "The Raven is referable either to accident or intuition [and] the work proceeded, step by step, to its completion with the precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem" (Poe 3). The critics did not embrace this answer, and sought for specificity. However, according to the artistic prerogative, Poe did not divulge his secrets. .
In Poe's The Philosophy of Composition, he sheds some light on his unique flavor. He believes it is a 'radical error' to rely upon reality to supply the flow of a story. This is an insufficient well from which to draw, and consequently, Poe asserts, "I prefer commencing with the consideration of an effect" (Poe 3). It is the inner world of the emotions that move this dreary quill, and indeed his emotional state is what creates the fantastic chilling of The Raven; "And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain/Thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;/So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating 'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door'" (Poe 12). Who is the visitor but the reader, come themselves to seek solace amidst curious books of lore.
