Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/332

294 Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking

Fancy into fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore—

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore

Meant in croaking "Nevermore."

Thus I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing

To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;

This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining

On the cushion's velvet lining, that the lamp-light gloated o'er,

But whose velvet violet lining, with the lamp-light gloating o'er,

She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer

Swung by seraphim, whose footfalls twinkled on the tufted floor.

"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee—by these angels He hath sent thee

Respite—respite and nepenthe from my memories of Lenore!

Quaff, oh, quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!"

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."