cause of his dissatisfaction with the poem. Indeed, it may well excite
surprise that he, so careful and fastidious as to the completeness of
his work, should have allowed _The Raven_ to go from his hands marred by
a defect so glaring, but this is proof that he did indeed regard it as
hopeless.

* * * * *

When Mr. Poe left us on this September morning he took with him this
manuscript copy of _The Raven_; which, however, he on the following day
handed to me, begging that I would keep it until his return from New
York. I found that he had marked several minor defects in the poem, one
of which was his objection to the word "shutter," as being too
commonplace and not agreeing with the word "lattice," previously used.

He remarked, before leaving for New York, that he intended having _The
Raven_, after some further work upon it, published in an early number of
the _Stylus_. I do not doubt but that, had he lived, he would have made
it much more perfect than it now is.

After his death his friend, Mr. Robert Sully, the Richmond artist, was
desirous of making a picture of the _Raven_, but explained to me why it
could not be done--all on account of that impossible "shadow on the
floor." Of course, said he, to produce such an effect the lamplight must
come from above and behind the bust and the bird. No; it was
impracticable."

This set me to thinking; and the result was that I, some time after,
went to Mr. Sully's studio and said to him: "How would it do to have a
glass transom above the door; one of those large fan-shaped transoms
which we sometimes find in old colonial mansions, opening on a lofty
galleried hall?"

It would do, he said. Indeed, with such an arrangement, and the lamp
supposed to be suspended from the hall ceiling, as in those old
mansions, there would be no difficulty with either the poem or the
picture. And we were both delighted at our discovery, and thought how
pleased Poe would have been with the idea--so effective in explaining
that mysterious shadow on the floor.

Mr. Sully commenced upon his picture, but died before completing it.

* * * * *

This manuscript copy of _The Raven_, with all its pencil-marks, as made
by Mr. Poe on that September morning, remained in my possession for many
years. It is yet photographed upon my memory, with all the details here
given from an odd leaf of a journal which I kept about that time--the
quiet