Page:Edgar Allan Poe - how to know him.djvu/243

THE POET 223 �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, Qhastly 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 �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." ��� �