January 19 2017 will be Edgar Allan Poe's 208th birth anniversary, his poem 'The Raven' was published this month 172 years ago.
"...But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing farther then he uttered—not a feather then he fluttered—
Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before—
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.”
Then the bird said “Nevermore.”..."Crows/ravens indeed are mysterious creatures. I have observed that whenever the volume of the voice in our household raises, for any reason- joy, grief, fight, electronics, plain talking etc, one of them perches itself on the wall of our terrace and starts crowing until we calm down, lower our voice!
Sometimes it really gets on my nerves and I chase it with a cricket stump...!
Here it is in June 2016:
Sitting across me...I wonder if it is crowing: NEVERMORE, NEVERMORE...
I came upon this cartoon in "The New Yorker" in May 2016.
I took my son's help to 'decipher' this cartoon.
It depicts Poe and a raven are playing scrabble. Raven is from Poe's "The Raven", 1845. It's holding a letter 'N' in is beak and is gunning for the word 'NEVERMORE' that recurs in the poem!
Wikipedia informs:
‘…"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American
writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often
noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It
tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the
man's slow fall into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student,
is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the
raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of
the word "Nevermore"…’
In the cartoon, Poe's distress is going to increase further because the raven is going to score some points with that word!
This must easily one of the best cartoons I have seen.