“POEDGR” might be the first poem to have its rhyme scheme thrown off by a FOIA exemption

In the eerie depths of the Central Intelligence Agency’s declassified archives, a document came rapping, rapping at our browser window.

In late 1986, an apparently disgruntled Agency employee took to the pages of Studies in Intelligence to offer their take on Edgar Allen Poe’s classic poem “The Raven.” But rather than particularly spooky bird and the memories of a lost love, “POEDGR” describe the employee’s own haunting by an anonymous chat box user, prolonging their usual 4:00pm clock out from work …

apparently forever.

While this is not the first poem discovered in the CIA archives, it does have the distinction of being the first we know of to have its rhyme scheme impacted by a FOIA exemption.

While the author’s name is similarly redacted, the signature of Chip Beck, AKA the “Cartoonist for the CIA,” can be made out in the bottom right of the raven illustration.

At least part of the inspiration for the poem comes from the CMS editor EDGAR, one of the predecessors to XEDIT, the software our anonymous author is using before they are mysteriously - and somewhat rudely - interrupted.

Hey, even spooks get spooked once in awhile.

The full poem is embedded below.