Despite gaining national renown after The Raven was published in 1845, Edgar Allan Poe never enjoyed great financial success. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsWhen the New York Evening Mirror published Edgar Allan Poes poem The Raven on January 29, 1845, it catapulted both the work and its author to instant fame.Poe, known for his macabre and Gothic style, was no stranger to audiences. Hed already penned and published short stories like The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) and The Black Cat (1843). Still, it was this stylized and rhythmic ballad of 18 six-line stanzas that most resonated with readers, making Poe a household name.The Raven tells the tale of a grieving narrator mourning the death of his lover, Lenore. On a particularly dreary December night, he hears a raven tapping at his window. When the narrator opens the window, in steps the raven, perching itself on his bust of Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. There it stands, constantly repeating the word Nevermore, while driving the narrator into madness.The Raven | Animation | Edgar Allan PoeWatch on Poe based the rhythm and meter of The Raven on Elizabeth Barrett Brownings poem Lady Geraldines Courtship, using a poetic form known as trochaic octameter. This particular meter of verse is known for having eight feet per line, with each foot a trocheeone stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable. Poe used the form to create a sense of forward motion in his work. He also used alliteration, internal rhyme and repetition to draw in readers, lending the piece a dark and melancholic tone.While Poe originally envisioned a parrot as his talking bird, he later decided on a raven, since the large black bird is often associated with death. He originally submitted The Raven to his former employer, George Rex Graham of Philadelphias Grahams magazine, but the publisher and editor passed on it. Poe sold it to the Evening Mirror instead, where it was printed with the authors own byline, and Poe later sold it to the American Review, where it was printed under the pseudonym Quarles.In the following weeks and months, The Raven appeared in multiple periodicals and anthologies, reaching a wide range of readers. Although fellow writers like Margaret Fuller and William Gilmore Simms praised the piece, others, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Butler Yeats, had fewif anypositive things to say about it. An illustration of "The Raven" by douard Manet Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsStill, the poem has influenced many modern works, including Vladimir Nabokovs 1955 novel, Lolita, and Bernard Malamuds 1963 allegorical short story, The Jewbird. Its also led to parodies like Marmaduke Mar-Rhymes The Pole-Cat (1846), political satires and even sequels.The poem also inspired an unlikely namesake: the Baltimore Ravens. The NFL football teams name honors Poe, who spent the early part of his career in Baltimore, died there and is buried there.Despite gaining national renown after The Raven was published in 1845, Poe never enjoyed much success financially. He died in 1849 at the age of 40. While the exact cause of his death remains a mystery, The Raven lives on as one of the authors most influential worksnot to mention one of the most famous poems ever written.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.