"Near A Raven" begins thus:
Poe, E.
Near a Raven
Midnights so dreary, tired and weary.
Silently pondering volumes extolling all by-now obsolete lore.
During my rather long nap - the weirdest tap!
An ominous vibrating sound disturbing my chamber's antedoor.
"This", I whispered quietly, "I ignore".
Perfectly, the intellect remembers: the ghostly fires, a glittering ember.
Inflamed by lightning's outbursts, windows cast penumbras upon this floor.
Sorrowful, as one mistreated, unhappy thoughts I heeded:
That inimitable lesson in elegance - Lenore -
Is delighting, exciting...nevermore.
Keith has imposed a purely mathematical constraint based on the number of letters in each word. Beginning with "Poe, E." and continuing throughout the poem's 740 words, each one represents a digit or two of pi. One through nine letters indicate the digits 1 to 9, ten letters indicate a 0, and eleven or more letters represent two consecutive digits (usually 11 or 12).
