How long did Poe spend trying to find the perfect word in "The Raven" when he finally decided on "nevermore"

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2003

Answers

When he chose the raven over the owl or parrot his range of choices increased. he had used the sound and meaning of this sound often, such as the Sonnet on Silence: "His name's 'No More'" and other places you can scan. The names Lenore, Eleaonora obviously also conditioned the rhyme and contained that sound mood as well as significant words like "shore"(the boundary of life and death etc.). His own account of writing the poem is contained in Poe's own essay "The Philosophy of Composition" at www.eapoe.org which, alas, is partly tongue in cheek.

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2003

Poe's southern accent, relatively light, would have tended to soften the "r" sound at the end of "more".

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2003