[Verse 1] I'm sitting still, just divining now— that's only guessing, reading shadows, working something out— to the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core. No wingbeat, no answer, just that stare, two embers fixed on me like I'm the only thing still there. [Chorus] Nevermore—and it's leaking into my own voice somehow, the word was his, but it's mine right now. Nevermore—I feel it climbing up behind my teeth, I'm whispering it with him, underneath. [Verse 2] I let my tired head tip backward, falling on the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er— violet velvet, dented, holding the ghost-shape of a woman adoring. She used to curl up here at evening, lounging, laughing, but gaslight only shows me this: she shall press, ah, nevermore. [Chorus] [Verse 3] Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer— a censer's just a swinging pot where sweet smoke curls and climbs, swung by seraphim, the highest angels, keeping unseen time. Their footfalls hush and tufted on the carpet's floor, and I'm begging now for respite—just a little rest, a door. [Bridge] Wretch, I cried, your God has sent you angels and a mercy, nepenthe is the drug of losing, pulled from Homer's old sea story— quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore! Drink it deep and lose her name— that's all I asked for, nothing more. [Chorus] Nevermore—the bird just tilts his head and answers cold, no respite given, no nepenthe to be sold. Nevermore—the only drug this room will ever pour is one more hour of knowing I'll remember her before. [Chorus] Nevermore—and it's leaking into my own voice somehow, the word was his, but it's mine right now. Nevermore—I feel it climbing up behind my teeth, I'm whispering it with him, underneath.
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