Had I been able in the subsequent
composition to construct more vigorous stanzas I should without
scruple have purposely enfeebled them so as not to interfere with
the climacteric effect.
And here I may as well say a few words of the versification. My
first object (as usual) was originality. The extent to which this
has been neglected in versification is one of the most unaccountable
things in the world. Admitting that there is little possibility of
variety in mere rhythm, it is still clear that the possible
varieties of metre and stanza are absolutely infinite, and yet, for
centuries, no man, in verse, has ever done, or ever seemed to think of
doing, an original thing. The fact is that originality (unless in
minds of very unusual force) is by no means a matter, as some suppose,
of impulse or intuition. In general, to be found, it must be
elaborately sought, and although a positive merit of the highest
class, demands in its attainment less of invention than negation.
Of course I pretend to no originality in either the rhythm or
metre of the "Raven." The former is trochaic- the latter is
octametre acatalectic, alternating with heptametre catalectic repeated
in the refrain of the fifth verse, and terminating with tetrametre
catalectic. Less pedantically the feet employed throughout
(trochees) consist of a long syllable followed by a short, the first
line of the stanza consists of eight of these feet, the second of
seven and a half (in effect two-thirds), the third of eight, the
fourth of seven and a half, the fifth the same, the sixth three and
a half.
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