My First Reading of The Raven

I first read Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” when I was 15 years old. A friend told me about the poem, describing it with such passion and intensity that I ran out to buy a copy the next day. “If you read it with the proper intonation and rhythm, you can hear the whisper of the raven,” he told me. The following morning I rode the bus home from downtown Mexico City holding a red hardcover book with a drawing of a mysterious animal on the front. I kept turning to the index page to check it was still there – “El Cuervo,” Spanish for “The Raven.” I decided to wait for the best time to read it; at night in my room when everyone else was sleeping, so I would not be disturbed. I did not know how long the poem was, but I knew I would finish it that night.

From the very first line, I was struck by the dramatic qualities of this poem -- the setting, the character, the mood, and the effect. The poem pulls you along with it, wrapping you up in the meter, the rhyme, the suspense. Before I knew it, I was at the las verse. I reread the last phrase and felt a deep sadness.

That night I vowed that someday I would read “The Raven” again – in English. Who knew that three years later I would be moving to Chicago to study dance? When the time came, and I was speaking and reading English, I went out to find“The Raven.” I read it for the second time at night in my room, and again I heard the raven calling.

25 Years Later…

Twenty-five years later, I organized a studio performance and video taping of my Raven Ballet by three outstanding dancers – Charles Askegard and Joaquin de Luz of New York City Ballet, and Veronika Part of American Ballet Theatre.  It was the realization of a dream that began many years ago. I hope to share my interpretation of this wonderful poem with many others in the years to come.