Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered,
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
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,
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
But the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
Then, me thought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"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 On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
The Bells
I
Hear the sledges with the bells —
II
Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
III
Hear the loud alarum bells —
Of the bells Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
IV
Hear the tolling of the bells —
ULALUME
The skies they were ashen and sober;
Here once, through an alley Titanic,
Our talk had been serious and sober,
And now, as the night was senescent And star-dials pointed to morn —
And I said — "She is warmer than Dian:
Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,
Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,
Then my heart it grew ashen and sober As the leaves that were crisped and sere —
BRIDAL BALLAD
The ring is on my hand,
And my lord he loves me well;
But he spoke to reassure me,
And thus the words were spoken,
Would to God I could awaken!
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Edgar Allan Poe.
Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
