While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door

A hideous throng rush out forever,

And laugh

but smile no more.

5

DREAM-LAND

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule

From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE out of TIME.

Bottomless vales and boundless floods,

And chasms, and caves and Titan woods,
With forms that no man can discover
For the tears that drip all over;
Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread

Their lone waters - lone and dead,·

Their still waters still and chilly

With the snows of the lolling lily.

By the lakes that thus outspread
Their lone waters, lone and dead,
Their sad waters, sad and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily, -
By the mountains- near the river

Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever,-
By the grey woods, by the swamp
Where the toad and the newt encamp,
By the dismal tarns and pools
Where dwell the Ghouls, -

-

White-robed forms of friends long given,
In agony, to the Earth and Heaven.

For the heart whose woes are legion
"T is a peaceful, soothing region -
For the spirit that walks in shadow
'T is oh 't is an Eldorado!

But the traveller, travelling through it,
May not dare not openly view it;
Never its mysteries are exposed
To the weak human eye unclosed;
So wills its King, who hath forbid
The uplifting of the fringèd lid;
And thus the sad Soul that here passes
Beholds it but through darkened glasses.

5

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT.
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have wandered home but newly
From this ultimate dim Thule.

THE RAVEN

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

10 Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore

15

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came

a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

"Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door

Only this and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak De20 cember;

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple

curtain

Thrilled me felt before;

filled me with fantastic terrors never

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood 5

repeating

"T is some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber

door

Some late visiter 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 cham

ber door,

10

15

That I scarce was sure I heard you" — here I opened 20 wide the door:

Darkness there and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to 25 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.

10 "Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;

15

20

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,

25 Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door:

Perched, and sat, and nothing more.