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Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered,
weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten
lore--
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there
came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber
door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping
at my chamber door--
only this and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak
December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost
upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;--vainly I had sought
to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow--sorrow for the
lost Lenore--
For the rare and radient maiden whom the angels
name Lenore--
Nameless here forevermore.
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each
purple curtain
Thrilled me--filled me with fantastic terrors
never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart,
I stood repeating,
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at
my chamber door--
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber
door;--
This it is and nothing more."
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then
no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or madam, truly
your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you
came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my
chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"--here
I opened wide the door;--
Darkness there and nothing more.
Deep into that darknes peering, long I stood
there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared
to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness
gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered
word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the
word, "Lenore!"
Merely this and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within
me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than
before.
"Surely," I said, "surely that
is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery
explore--
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery
explore;--
'Tis the wind and nothing more!"
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many
a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly
days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute
stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above
my chamber door--
perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber
door--
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into
smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance
it wore,
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,"
I said, "art sure no craven,
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 marveled 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 door--
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his
chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore."
But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust,
spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word
he did outpour.
Nothing farther then he uttered--not a feather
then he fluttered--
Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other
friends have flown 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,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters
is its only stock and store
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful
disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs
one burden bore--
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden
bore
Of 'Never--nevermore.'"
But the Raven still beguiling my sad fancy 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
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my
bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at
ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight
gloated o'er,
But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamplight
gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed
from an unseen censer
Swung by seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the
tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God has
lent thee--by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite--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!--
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed
thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land
enchanted
On this home by horror haunted--tell me truly,
I implore--
Is there--is there balm in Gilead?--tell me--tell
me, I implore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"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,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels
name Lenore--
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels
name Lenore."
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"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 the 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
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber
door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's
that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his
shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating
on the floor
Shall be lifted--nevermore!
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