[Verse 1] I stood at the open doorway, staring where no lamp was burning, "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing," Wondering what walked the hallway, fearing what the black might hold, "Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before" — mortal means a breathing soul, like me, who someday breathes no more. [Chorus] Lenore! — I call her name once — Lenore! — the dark throws it back — "And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, Lenore!" Just my own voice, hollow, turning, nothing answers but the yearning, Lenore, Lenore, and nothing more. [Verse 2] Back into the chamber turning, every ember of my soul burning, I heard a knocking, bolder, louder, knuckles rapping at the pane — not the door this time, the window, something tapping in the rain. For a heartbeat hope ignites me — maybe it's a token, a sign, maybe death let loose its token, gave me back what once was mine. [Chorus] Lenore! — I call her name once — Lenore! — the dark throws it back — "And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, Lenore!" Just my own voice, hollow, turning, nothing answers but the yearning, Lenore, Lenore, and nothing more. [Bridge] Hear the d's drag slow and heavy — deep, dark, doubting, dreaming, dared, Poe makes vowels crawl like shadows so we wait there too, unprepared. "Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice" — lattice: crossed wood framing glass, thin bars between the dark and us. Let me see then what is there, thereat, and end this mystery's hold, let my heart be still a moment before the truth of it is told. [Verse 3] Heart be still, be still a moment, let the trembling hush and fold, "'T is the wind and nothing more!" I tell myself, though I don't believe it — no ghost-token, no returning, just the night, and I who grieve it. Echo answered once with sorrow, now the glass just rattles cold, Lenore is gone, and nothing, nothing but the wind, I'm told. [Verse 4] Now the candle gutters lower, shadows pooling on the floor, and I think of all the nights I begged the darkness for one more — one more word, one more glance, one more whisper through the door. But the dead keep their own counsel, silent keepers evermore, and the living learn too slowly what the silence has in store: that grief's a bird that nests inside you, perched upon the heart's own core, never leaving, never speaking, just repeating what it saw — a name, a face, a love that vanished through that same unlocked door, Lenore, Lenore, forever Lenore. [Chorus] Lenore! — I call her name once — Lenore! — the dark throws it back — "And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, Lenore!" Just my own voice, hollow, turning, nothing answers but the yearning, Lenore, Lenore, and nothing more. [Outro] Lenore... Lenore... only an echo, nothing more. Tap at the lattice, tap once more — not her. The wind. And nothing more.
← Stanzas 3–4: Darkness There | Stanzas 7–8: A Stately Raven Steps In →