Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, 66 no craven, art sur Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its answer little meaning-little relevancy bore; For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber doorBird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door, With such name as "Nevermore." But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only before On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before" Then the bird said "Nevermore." Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, Of Never-nevermore.' But the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling, Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door; Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore Meant in croaking "Nevermore" This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen 66 censer Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. 'Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee-by these angels he hath sent thee Kespite-respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore! Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." "Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!-prophet still, if bird or devil!-- "Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil-prophet still, if bird or devil! By that Heaven that bends above us-by that God we both adore Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, "Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting "Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore ! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken!-quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting And floor; my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted-nevermore ! LENORE. AH, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever! Let the bell toll!—a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river; See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore! be song sung!An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so youngA dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young. - Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride, "And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her that she died! "How shall the ritual, then, be read?—the requiem how be เ sung By you-by yours, the evil eye,-by yours, the slanderous tongue That did to death the innocence that died, and died so young ?" Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside, Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been hy bride For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies. "Avaunt! to-night my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise, "But waft the angel on her flight with a Paan of old days! .6 Let no bell toll!-lest her sweet soul, amid its hallowed mirth, "Should catch the note, as it doth float up from the damned Earth. "To friends above, from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven "From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven"From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven." HYMN. AT morn-at noon-at twilight dim- With sweet hopes of thee and thine! |