The crossword solution for the term 'ABLE WAS I ___ I SAW...' is 'ERE' (3 letters). This is a reference to the famous line from the poem 'The Raven' by Edgar Allan Poe, which reads 'Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / ABLE was I ERE I SAW Elba'. The poem is about a man who is visited by a talking raven, and the line is meant to suggest that the narrator was ABLE to think clearly before he SAW the bird.