The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,  
  The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,  
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,  
  And leaves the world to darkness and to me.  
  
Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,           
  And all the air a solemn stillness holds,  
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,  
  And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds:  
  
Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower  
  The moping owl does to the moon complain            
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,  
  Molest her ancient solitary reign.  
  
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade  
  Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,  
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,            
  The rude Forefathers of the hamlet sleep.  
  
The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,  
  The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,  
The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,  
  No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.            
  
For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn  
  Or busy housewife ply her evening care:  
No children run to lisp their sire's return,  
  Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.  
  
Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,            
  Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;  
How jocund did they drive their team afield!  
  How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!  
  
Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,  
  Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;            
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile  
  The short and simple annals of the Poor.  
  
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,  
  And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave  
Awaits alike th' inevitable hour:—            
  The paths of glory lead but to the grave.  
  
Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault  
  If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,  
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault  
  The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.            
  
Can storied urn or animated bust  
  Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath,  
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,  
  Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?  
  
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid            
  Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;  
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,  
  Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre:  
  
But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,  
  Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;            
Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,  
  And froze the genial current of the soul.  
  
Full many a gem of purest ray serene  
  The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:  
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,            
  And waste its sweetness on the desert air.  
  
Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast  
  The little tyrant of his fields withstood,  
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,  
  Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood.            
  
Th' applause of listening senates to command,  
  The threats of pain and ruin to despise,  
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,  
  And read their history in a nation's eyes  
  
Their lot forbad: nor circumscribed alone            
  Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;  
Forbad to wade through slaughter to a throne,  
  And shut the gates of mercy on mankind;  
  
The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,  
  To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,            
Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride  
  With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.  
  
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife  
  Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;  
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life            
  They kept the noiseless tenour of their way.  
  
Yet e'en these bones from insult to protect  
  Some frail memorial still erected nigh,  
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,  
  Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.            
  
Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd Muse,  
  The place of fame and elegy supply:  
And many a holy text around she strews,  
  That teach the rustic moralist to die.  
  
For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,            
  This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,  
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,  
  Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?  
  
On some fond breast the parting soul relies,  
  Some pious drops the closing eye requires;            
E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,  
  E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.  
  
For thee, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead,  
  Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;  
If chance, by lonely Contemplation led,            
  Some kindred spirit shall enquire thy fate,— 
  
Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,  
  'Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn  
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,  
  To meet the sun upon the upland lawn;             
  
'There at the foot of yonder nodding beech  
  That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,  
His listless length at noon-tide would he stretch,  
  And pore upon the brook that babbles by.  
  
'Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,             
  Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove;  
Now drooping, woeful-wan, like one forlorn,  
  Or crazed with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.  
  
'One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,  
  Along the heath, and near his favourite tree;             
Another came; nor yet beside the rill,  
  Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;  
  
'The next with dirges due in sad array  
  Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne,—
Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay             
  Graved on the stone beneath yon agèd thorn:'  
  
The Epitaph

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth  
  A youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown;  
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth  
  And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.             
  
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere;  
  Heaven did a recompense as largely send:  
He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,  
  He gain'd from Heaven, 'twas all he wish'd, a friend.  
  
No farther seek his merits to disclose,             
  Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,  
(There they alike in trembling hope repose,)  
  The bosom of his Father and his God.

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—
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—
               Only this and nothing more."

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
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.

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 repeating,
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—
               This it is and nothing more."

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 chamber 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.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
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 a moment and this mystery explore;—
               'Tis the wind and nothing more!"

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
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.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
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."

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door—
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
               With such name as "Nevermore."

But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further 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."

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 my sad fancy 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."

This 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 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."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!—
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 me truly, I implore—
Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!"
               Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil—prophet still, if bird or devil!
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."

"Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting—
"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."

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
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!