What kind of gothic artist would I be if I did not have at least one image inspired by the almost definitive goth poem, The Raven, by master of the macabre, Edgar Allen Poe. It’s such an awesome poem, but the trick was in trying to find a different approach that hadn’t been done before.

In truth, I’d had the idea of two ravens on a tombstone and the poem hadn’t even come into my head consciously until my husband pointed it out and I immediately thought that it was a beautiful connection that I couldn’t pass by. I wanted to avoid the recognisable and overused “Nevermore” from the poem, so I spent some time reading over the poem until I struck upon two lines that inspired me in the second verse (emphasis mine).

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; – vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore –
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore –
Nameless here for evermore.

From this verse is the title of the piece, Sorrow for the Lost, and the tombstone’s epithet, “Nameless here for evermore”.

If, perchance, you have not read the poem, you can read the full text here.