Once Upon a Midnight Dreary

Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven, published in 1845, inspired this woodcut by Ernest William Watson. As you read the first stanza, form your own mental picture. Has Watson captured the spirit of the poem? What would you do differently?

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—

Only this, and nothing more.”