The Raven - Part 5

" 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

all my sad soul 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.'