: Poems. THE RAVEN. ONCE upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, SUDDENLY THERE CAME A TAPPING. While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one 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 radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore,— Nameless here for evermore. 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 |