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Vocabulary words are underlined. Definitions appear at the end of the text.
by Edgar Allan Poe
(published 1845)
Ah, broken is the golden bowl! — the spirit flown forever!
Let the bell toll! — a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river: —
And, Guy De Vere, hast thou no tear? — weep now or never more!
See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!
Come, let the burial rite be read — the funeral song be sung! —
An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young —
A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.
"Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and ye hated her for her pride;
And, when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her — that she died: —
How shall the ritual, then, be read? — the requiem how be sung
By you — by yours, the evil eye — by yours the slanderous tongue
That did to death the innocence that died and died so young?"
Peccavimus; yet rave not thus! but let a Sabbath song
Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel no wrong!
The sweet Lenore "hath gone before," with Hope that flew beside,
Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride —
For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies,
The life upon her yellow hair, but not within her eyes —
The life still there upon her hair — the death upon her eyes.
"Avaunt! — avaunt! from fiends below the indignant ghost is riven —
From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven —
From grief and groan to a golden throne beside the King of Heaven! —
Let no bell toll, then! — lest her soul, amid its hallowed mirth,
Should catch the note as it doth float up from the damnéd Earth!
And I — to-night my heart is light! — no dirge will I upraise,
But waft the angel on her flight with a Paean of old days!"
Avaunt:Go away!
bier:A movable frame on which a coffin or a corpse is placed before burial or cremation or on which it is carried to the grave.
debonair:1. Gentle and courteous.
2. Confident, stylish, and charming.
dirge:a mournful song, piece of music, or poem
paean:A joyous song or hymn of praise, tribute, thanksgiving, or triumph.
Peccavimus:1. Latin for "We have sinned".
2. The title of a Latin prayer song, composed by Paolo Agostini in 1643.
requiem:1. A church Mass for the repose of the souls of the dead.
2. A musical composition setting parts of a requiem Mass.
Stygian river:In Greek mythology, the river Styx forms the boundary between Earth and the Underworld.