El Dorado
__Gaily bedight,
__A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
__Had journeyed long,
__Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
__But he grew old-
__This knight so bold-
And o'er his heart a shadow
__Fell as he found
__No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
__And, as his strength
__Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow-
__"Shadow, said he-
__"Where can it be-
This land of Eldorado?"
__"Over the Mountains
__Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
__Ride, boldly ride,"
__The shade replied,-
"If you seek for Eldorado."
The Bells
I
__Hear the sledges with the bells-
__Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
__How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
__In the icy air of night!
__While the stars that oversprinkle
__All the heavens, seem to twinkle
__With a crystalline delight;
__Keeping time, time, time,
__In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
__From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
__Bells, bells, bells-
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
II
__Hear the mellow wedding bells,
__Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
__Through the balmy air of night
__How they ring out their delight!
__From the molten-golden notes,
__And an in tune,
__What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
__On the moon!
__Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
__How it swells!
__How it dwells
__On the Future! how it tells
__Of the rapture that impels
__To the swinging and the ringing
__Of the bells, bells, bells,
__Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
__Bells, bells, bells-
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
III
__Hear the loud alarum bells-
__Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
__In the startled ear of night
__How they scream out their affright!
__Too much horrified to speak,
__They can only shriek, shriek,
__Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
__Leaping higher, higher, higher,
__With a desperate desire,
__And a resolute endeavor,
__Now–now to sit or never,
__By the side of the pale-faced moon.
__Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
__What a tale their terror tells
__Of Despair!
__How they clang, and clash, and roar!
__What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
__Yet the ear it fully knows,
__By the twanging,
__And the clanging,
__How the danger ebbs and flows:
__Yet the ear distinctly tells,
__In the jangling,
__And the wrangling,
__How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-
__Of the bells-
__Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
__Bells, bells, bells-
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
IV
__Hear the tolling of the bells-
__Iron Bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
__In the silence of the night,
__How we shiver with affright
__At the melancholy menace of their tone!
__For every sound that floats
__From the rust within their throats
__Is a groan.
__And the people–ah, the people-
__They that dwell up in the steeple,
__All Alone
__And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
__In that muffled monotone,
__Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone-
__They are neither man nor woman-
__They are neither brute nor human-
__They are Ghouls:
__And their king it is who tolls;
__And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
__Rolls
__A paean from the bells!
__And his merry bosom swells
__With the paean of the bells!
__And he dances, and he yells;
__Keeping time, time, time,
__In a sort of Runic rhyme,
__To the paean of the bells-
__Of the bells:
__Keeping time, time, time,
__In a sort of Runic rhyme,
__To the throbbing of the bells-
__Of the bells, bells, bells-
__To the sobbing of the bells;
__Keeping time, time, time,
__As he knells, knells, knells,
__In a happy Runic rhyme,
__To the rolling of the bells-
__Of the bells, bells, bells:
__To the tolling of the bells,
__Of the bells, bells, bells, bells-
__Bells, bells, bells-
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering fearing,
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placed bust, spoke only
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!-prophet still, if bird or devil!-
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!-prophet still, if bird or devil!-
"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting-
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
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.
"'T is some visitor," I mutttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
____Only this and nothing more."
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.
Thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
"'T is some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-
____This it is and nothing more."
"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 chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"-here I opened wide the door;-
____Darkness there and nothing more.
Doubting, 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.
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore-
Let my heart be still amoment and this mystery explore;-
____'T is the wind and nothing more!"
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door-
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door-
____Perched, and sat, and nothing more
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,
Ghastly 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."
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."
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."
"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.'"
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 upon fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore-
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
____Meant in croaking "Nevermore."
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!
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee-by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite-respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore;
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"
____Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."
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 my truly, I implore-
Is there-is there balm in Gilead?-tell me-tell me, I implore!"
____Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."
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."
"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."
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
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
____Shall be lifted-nevermore!
