A raven may not have been the first bird under consideration for the poem, but the raven won out because of its ability to 'talk', its black color, and legendary reputation as a harbinger of ill omen and death.
The poem was partly inspired by the talking raven in Charles Dickens' novel, "Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty" (1841).
No one really knows how long it took Poe to write the poem, but it may have been as long as several years.
Poe's wife, Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe, died two years and one day after the initial publication of the poem, but her long-term, terminal illness, consumption (tuberculosis), would have been very apparent while Poe was finishing the poem.
The poem borrows the meter and rhyme scheme from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem 'Lady Geraldine's Courtship,' and he dedicated his collection, 'The Raven and Other Poems' (1845) to her.
Poe's publisher friend, George Rex Graham, declined to publish the poem (the poem may not have been in its finished form at the time) though he gave Poe $15 out of charity, and Poe only received $9 for the actual first printing of the poem.
The poem was originally published in the New York Evening Mirror on January 29, 1845, which is based on Manhattan island near where Poe was living at that time.
Poe published an 'explanation' of the poem in an essay titled "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846).
Poe often publicly gave dramatic readings of the poem, and several contemporaries praised his performances.
The poem was, and still is, by far Poe's most famous piece of literature.
