[Verse 1]
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary"
Over volumes quaint and curious — that's old lore, a dusty theory
Candle low, my mind in tatters, chasing facts that no one needs
"While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping"
Soft against my chamber — chamber, just the room where I keep ease
[Chorus]
Just a tapping, just a rapping, nothing more than wood on wood
"'T is some visiter, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door"
I say it calm, I say it steady, though my pulse says otherwise it should
"Only this, and nothing more"
[Verse 2]
"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December"
Every dying ember on the floorboards wrought its shadow on the wall
Wrought — a word for shaped, for hammered — grief had wrought me thin and small
I had sought in books surcease — surcease, an ending to my sorrow
Borrowed pages meant to numb an ache I'd carry through tomorrow
[Verse 3]
For the rare and radiant maiden, lost to me and never near
"For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore"
Heaven keeps her name like treasure, speaks it soft on some bright stair
"Nameless here for evermore" — down below I dare not say it
Just her outline in the margin of the page I can't repair
[Chorus]
Just a tapping, just a rapping, nothing more than wood on wood
"'T is some visiter, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door"
I say it calm, I say it steady, though my pulse says otherwise it should
"Only this, and nothing more"
[Bridge]
Listen how the words keep knocking — dreary leaning into weary
Napping tipping into tapping, tapping tipping into rapping
That's the poet's quiet trick: let the sound perform the scene
Before the door has even opened, you can hear what midnight means
[Outro]
Once upon a tale turned colder, once a story bent to true
A man, a book, a door, December, and a name he can't get through
"Only this, and nothing more"
[Chorus]
Just a tapping, just a rapping, nothing more than wood on wood
"'T is some visiter, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door"
I say it calm, I say it steady, though my pulse says otherwise it should
"Only this, and nothing more"