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An Unfolding of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” Edgar Allan Poe wrote an essay entitled “The Philosophy of Composition”. In this dissertation, Poe described the creation and work involved in composing his well-known literary masterpiece, “The Raven”. In “The Philosophy of Composition,” Poe stated that his design was to make “The Raven” “universally appreciable”, so that the public, as well as the critics would share a strong appreciation of his work (Poe, 1850). While “The Raven” is quite possibly Poe’s most disturbing tale, not so much because of images of grief or despair, but because of the haunting way the reader starts to feel the inner turmoil of the narrator, it is renowned as one of the greatest symbolic masterpieces of American Poetry. “The Raven” is about a man who lost his true love and tries to ease the pain or “sorrow for the lost Lenore” (DiVanni, 721), by reading old books to keep his mind occupied. He is interrupted from his napping, by what he says is a "tapping on my chamber door" (D