Till the yellow-haired young Eulalie became my smiling bride. The stars of the night Than the eyes of the radiant girl! And never a flake That the vapor can make With the moon-tints of purple and pearl, Can vie with the modest Eulalie's most unregarded curl Can compare with the bright-eyed Eulalie's most humble and careless curl. Come never again, For her soul gives me sigh for sigh, And all day long Shines, bright and strong, Astarté within the sky, While ever to her dear Eulalie upturns her matron eye While ever to her young Eulalie upturns her violet eye. TO F BELOVED! amid the earnest woes That crowd around my earthly path – (Drear path, alas! where grows Not even one lonely rose) · My soul at least a solace hath In dreams of thee, and therein knows And thus thy memory is to me Like some enchanted far-off isle In some tumultuous sea Some ocean throbbing far and free Just o'er that one bright island smile. then let thy heart From its present pathway part not! Thy grace, thy more than beauty, And love a simple duty. THE RAVEN. 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 some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. 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 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 stood 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, That I scarce was sure I heard you - here I opened wide the door ; Darkness there and nothing more. Deep into that darkness 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. |