Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, “The Raven,” might have featured an annoying person. Or a parrot.

He wrote the poem backwards, in a sense, deciding on everything from the meter and one-line refrain to the effect he wanted to achieve and the characters before actually composing what would become one of the best-known and creepiest poems in the English language.

Having settled on “nevermore” as a key word in the refrain, Poe faced a problem: ” … inventing a sufficiently plausible reason for its continuous repetition.”

He said, “I did not fail to perceive that this difficulty arose solely from the pre-assumption that the word was to be so continuously or monotonously spoken by a human being.”

Poe decided to solve this by having a “non-reasoning creature” repeat the word. The first such creature that came to his mind was a parrot. That, however, was “superseded forthwith by a raven, as equally capable of speech, and infinitely more in keeping with the intended tone.”

When considering birds that can talk, most of us don’t immediately think of ravens. What made Poe think of one? Many believed he borrowed the idea from Charles Dickens.

In Dicken’s novel, “Barnaby Rudge” (which Poe reviewed), there is a raven named Grip. The bird is famous for saying, “Halloa, halloa, halloa! What’s the matter here! Keep up your spirits. Never say die. Bow wow wow. I’m a devil, I’m a devil, I’m a devil. Hurrah!”

Ravens are not the only birds that can mimic human speech. Parrots can, but when they do, they sound like, well, parrots. Mockingbirds can, but they sound like mockingbirds. Parakeets and cockatoos can, but they sound like parakeets and cockatoos, and are too darn cute to be creepy. The Hill Myna can mimic a human perfectly, but would be too rare for Poe’s purposes. Which brings us to the crow. Wouldn’t it have fulfilled the poem’s need?

Crows can learn to repeat human words. Their speech is bird-like, but understandable.

You have, no doubt, seen crows, so know a bit about how they look and the caw, caw, caw they make. You may not have seen a raven.

Crows are smaller than ravens, and a crow’s beak is shorter and less curved. The tail feathers of a crow are all the same length, so when spread, they resemble a rounded fan. A raven has longer feathers in the middle of its tail, creating more of a wedge shape.

Crows do more flapping. Ravens like coasting about on thermals.

Crows like living near human habitats. Ravens are more countrified.

Crows live in groups (a group of crows is called a murder, so there is a vote for crows). Ravens often live alone or in twos.

Crows can learn to say words in a bird-like manner. Ravens, on the other hand, can sound quite human.

So when in the poem there is a tapping at the window, the guy opens it, and in walks a raven, it’s creepy. Creepier than a crow.

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