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! 85 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."

९९

90

'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."

96

"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
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

83 Quaff, oh: Let me (A. W. R., S. L. M. [1845], Tribune).

ΙΟΙ

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride
Till the yellow-haired young Eulalie became my smiling bride.

5

ΙΟ

Can vie with the modest Eulalie's most unregarded curl
Can compare with the bright-eyed Eulalie's most humble and

While ever to her dear Eulalie upturns her matron eye -
While ever to her young Eulalie upturns her violet eye.

(1845)

20

105 demon's: demon (all others except 1845, Sat. C., Graham's, S. L.M. [1848], and 1850).

11 moon-tints: morn-tints (A. W.R.). 17 And: While (A. W. R., B.J.).

20 While And (A. W. R., B.J.). 21 While And (A. W.R., B.J.).

A VALENTINE

For her these lines are penned, whose luminous eyes,
Brightly expressive as the twins of Loda,

Shall find her own sweet name that, nestling, lies

Upon this page, enwrapped from every reader.

Search narrowly this rhyme, which holds a treasure
Divine a talisman

an amulet

That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure;

The words - the letters themselves. Do not forget

The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor.

And yet there is in this no Gordian knot
Which one might not undo without a sabre,

If one could merely understand the plot.
Enwritten upon this page whereon are peering
Such eager eyes, there lies, I say, perdu,
A well-known name, oft uttered in the hearing

Of poets, by poets; as the name is a poet's, too.

5

ΙΟ

15

To

Title To Her Whose Name is Written Below (E. M.), A Valentine.

(U.M.).

1 these lines are: this rhyme is (U. M., 1850).

2 Brightly: Bright and (E.M.); twins: stars (E.M.).

4 this: the (U.M., 1850).

5 this rhyme, which holds: these words which hold (E. M.), the lines ! – they hold (U.M., 1850).

8 letters themselves: syllables (U.M., 1850).

9 trivialest: smallest (E. M.).

12 understand: comprehend (E. M., U.M., 1850).

13 Upon the open page on which are peering (E. M.); Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering (U. M., 1850).

14 Such sweet eyes now, there lies, I say, perdu (E. M.); Eyes scintillating soul, there lie perdus (U. M., 1850).

15 A well-known name: A musical name (E.M.), Three eloquent words (U.M., 1850).

16 as for (E. M.).

Its letters, although naturally lying —

Like the knight Pinto (Mendez Ferdinando)

Still form a synonym for truth. Cease trying!

19

You will not read the riddle though you do the best you can do.

TO M. L. S

Of all who hail thy presence as the morning

Of all to whom thine absence is the night

The blotting utterly from out high heaven
The sacred sun — of all who, weeping, bless thee
Hourly for hope for life-ah! above all,
For the resurrection of deep-buried faith
In Truth, in Virtue, in Humanity -
Of all who, on Despair's unhallowed bed
Lying down to die, have suddenly arisen

At thy soft-murmured words, "Let there be light!"
At the soft-murmured words that were fulfilled

In the seraphic glancing of thine eyes-
Of all who owe thee most whose gratitude
Nearest resembles worship-oh, remember
The truest the most fervently devoted,

And think that these weak lines are written by him
By him who, as he pens them, thrills to think
His spirit is communing with an angel's.

(1847)

17 In common sequence set, the letters lying (E. M.).
18-20 Instead of these lines, E. M. has the following:

Compose a sound delighting all to hear —
Ah, this you'd have no trouble in descrying
Were you not something of a dunce, my dear: —
And now I leave these riddles to their seer.

(1846)

5

IO

15

ULALUMEA BALLAD

The skies they were ashen and sober;

The leaves they were crispéd and sere
The leaves they were withering and sere:
It was night, in the lonesome October

Of my most immemorial year:
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
In the misty mid region of Weir
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

Here once, through an alley Titanic,

Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul -
Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.
These were days when my heart was volcanic
As the scoriac rivers that roll

As the lavas that restlessly roll

Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek

In the ultimate climes of the Pole

That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek
In the realms of the Boreal Pole.

Our talk had been serious and sober,

But our thoughts they were palsied and sere
Our memories were treacherous and sere;

For we knew not the month was October,
And we marked not the night of the year
(Ah, night of all nights in the year!) —

20

25

Title To

lume (1850).

1 they: Omitted in P.J.

Ulalume: A Ballad (A. W. R., P.P.A.), Ula

13 L. W. inserts the before "days."