I talk with colleague Dr. Greg Londe (The Cracked Lookingglass) about Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." Topics include: Poe's sneaky interest in math and the cosmos; the ways sound works in the poem; how the speaker goes from wheedling to intensely angry; the greatness of The Simpsons. And how will I pronounce the word "leisure"?

Also discussed: Poe's essay "The Philosophy of Composition"; Poe's poems Eureka, "Evening Star," and "Sonnet: To Science"; T. S. Eliot's essay on Poe.