In such a search it
would have been absolutely impossible to overlook the word
"Nevermore." In fact it was the very first which presented itself.
The next desideratum was a pretext for the continuous use of the one
word "nevermore." In observing the difficulty which I had at once
found in inventing a sufficiently plausible reason for its
continuous repetition, I did not fail to perceive that this difficulty
arose solely from the preassumption that the word was to be so
continuously or monotonously spoken by a human being- I did not fail
to perceive, in short, that the difficulty lay in the reconciliation
of this monotony with the exercise of reason on the part of the
creature repeating the word. Here, then, immediately arose the idea of
a non-reasoning creature capable of speech, and very naturally, a
parrot, in the first instance, suggested itself, but was superseded
forthwith by a Raven as equally capable of speech, and infinitely more
in keeping with the intended tone.
I had now gone so far as the conception of a Raven, the bird of
ill-omen, monotonously repeating the one word "Nevermore" at the
conclusion of each stanza in a poem of melancholy tone, and in
length about one hundred lines. Now, never losing sight of the object-
supremeness or perfection at all points, I asked myself- "Of all
melancholy topics what, according to the universal understanding of
mankind, is the most melancholy?" Death, was the obvious reply.
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