Translation represents a complex and demanding activity. It imposes on a translator certain skills and competences. Moreover, it asks for total devotion on the part of a translator concerning attention and time, so that a detailed analysis is done prior to the process of translation. Literary translation is even more demanding since apart from language competences that a translator is obliged to possess, they also need to show literary talent for poetic expression, i.e. they need to be creators as well as translators. Translation of different literary genres also differs. Therefore, translation of poetry is the most demanding of all due to its specificities. The best translator of poetry is a poet themselves. The subject of research in this paper was literary translation with special attention devoted to translation of poetry. The author pointed to specificities of poetry translation as compared to the translation of other literary genres. A comparative analysis was performed on the original poem in English, 'The Raven', by Edgar Allan Poe and five different translations that appeared in the scope of one century. After the analysis the author presents her conclusions concerning literary translation in general, especially pointing out the facts in which translation of poetry differs from literary translation as such. She also emphasizes the importance of a translator's competence of recognizing the author's intention, intention of the literary work and intention of the reader in order to form a translation the meaning of which is as close as possible to the meaning of the original literary work.