The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-22
HOW POE WROTE "THE RAVEN'

m TOW Edgar Allan Poe stood in | IHI the rain under 8 Broadway street lamp and wrote al least a few lines of "The Raven and read part of his immortal poem to 8 friend who found him there is told in an article in the New York 1 University Alumnus. The frient was the late pr. Cornelius Mathews journalist and lawyer, first president of the New York University Alumni association. who organized the Copy right club in 1s4S. Dr. Mathews died in New York city in 1889. The story niece, Frances Aymar Mathews, and copy of 1t sent recently to Chan cellor Brown of New York university for preservation.
 The story was told one night after the niece had found among her uncle's keepsakes a portrait of Poe, inscribed: ITO my friend, Cornelius Mathews, from his devoted friend Edgar Allan Poe"
 It was drizzly night in the winter 1 of 1s4445, that Dr. Mathews, in his early twenties and with play of his own he was trying to get produced, went to the famous old Park theatre. then on Park Row, present home of | New York newspapers and far from what Is now the theatre district. When seated, he found himself be- side Poe, whom he had known for . number of years.
 He spoke little of his wife" said pr. Mathews. after my in- quiries; of her not being able to come out on a night like this; of his moth- er-in-1aw, of Willis, of Lowell, Mrs Browning and finally of ourselves" Engrossed in their talk, they gave little heed to the stage.
 He was one of the most courteous and attentive listeners I ever encoun- tered" said Dr.I Mathews, "and in- quired as to the play I was so intent upon. It was 'Witchcraft, and as briefly as I could I outlined the plot to him. As I came to the close of my fourth act, depicting the anguish and horror of mx hero, Gideon. on being convinced that his mother is in truth a witch, beho1ding as he does the signs in the elements and in the sky, Poe, his gaze fixed before him, said in his low voice. MT. Mathews, why do you not at this point have a raven. that bird of i'll omen. fit across the stage over the witchs head?
 T told him that while the pictur- sequences of the bird would be unde- niable. the unity of the atmosphere would be disturbed by its introduce ton, that a raven in Salem town would never do.
 "'Do you know Poe replied, hIs voice so low it could not disturb even his nearest neighbor, that that bird, that imp bird. pursues me men tally, perpetually; I cannot rid my self of it's presence; as I~sit here I seem to hear the melancholy of it's croak as I used to hear it in my boy hood days at school at Stoke-Newing- ton; I seem to hear the sordid flap of it's wings in my ears
 Presently he drew himself up and folded his arms across his chest.
 "I wonder he said. If Dickens has ever been haunted by the raven as I am. wonder if the raven in "Barnaby Rudge" is his expression of the monotonous power of the bird over his mind? What do you thinkv
 T answered that from long cor respondence with Dickens I took him to be 8 man so little inclined to the interpretive that his presenta- ton of Barnaby's raven was likely to have been more for it's effect than ss the result of deep cause
 ".I sec responded rcs gfat is precisely 1t. Some msn swsx fr4fIes. foibles or events te thsif own chap ing; others are swayed and swpns hither and thither by whispers hsg.u only by themselves
 Leaving the theatre together. pr. Mathews turned to ask Poe to sup per dn a nearby restaurant. but the poet was nowhere in sight; and al- though pr. Mathews sought him everywhere in the crowd. Poe was inot to be found. So pr. Mathews went alone tqsup- per. and it was after midnight when he boarded . joitinE bus for u ride kpp Broadway to his homo. thafbeing bSfors the days of street cfs. It was growinl colder. sas sfn was