The poem, he says, should be short, readable at one sitting (or as long as “The Raven”). Its chief aim is beauty, namely, to produce a feeling of beauty in the reader. Poetry does not have to inculcate a moral; it has only to be; the artistry of the poem lies not so much in what is being said as in the way it says it. He stresses rhythm, defines true poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty,” and declares that “music is the perfection of the soul, or idea, of poetry.” Poe was unabashed to offer his own poem “The Raven” as an illustration of his point. It is about 100 lines, perfectly readable at one sitting. A sense of melancholy over the death of a beloved beautiful young woman pervades the whole poem: the portrayal of a young man grieving for his lost Lenore, his grief being turned to madness under the steady one-word repetition of the talking bird introduced right at the beginning of the poem. Poe's poems are heavily tinted in a dreamy, hallucinatory color. “The Raven” is a good example as the narrator is in a state of semi-stupor. For the sake of regularity in rhythm, Poe disapproves of the use of archaisms, contractions, inversions, and similar devices. “The Raven” is thus a perfect illustration of his theory on poetry.