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A wonder to these garden trees!
Strange is thy pallor! strange thy dress!
Strange, above all, thy length of tress,
And this all solemn silentness!
* * * *
The lady sleeps! Oh, may her sleep,
Which is enduring, so be deep!
Heaven have her in its sacred keep!
This chamber changed for one more holy,
This bed for one more melancholy,
I pray to God that she may lie
Forever with unopened eye,
While the dim sheeted ghosts go by!
* * * *
My love, she sleeps! Oh, may her sleep,
As it is lasting, so be deep!
Soft may the worms about her creep!
Far in the forest, dim and old,
For her may some tall vault unfold
Some vault that oft hath flung its black
And winged pannels fluttering back,
Triumphant, o'er the crested palls,
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The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe [Volume 5]
by Edgar Allan Poe
Of her grand family funerals
Some sepulchre, remote, alone,
Against whose portal she hath thrown,
In childhood, many an idle stone
Some tomb fromout whose sounding door
She ne'er shall force an echo more,
Thrilling to think, poor child of sin!
It was the dead who groaned within.
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Bridal Ballad
THE ring is on my hand,
And the wreath is on my brow;
Satins and jewels grand
Are all at my command,
And I am happy now.
* * * *
And my lord he loves me well;
But, when first he breathed his vow,
I felt my bosom swell
For the words rang as a knell,
And the voice seemed his who fell
In the battle down the dell,
And who is happy now.
* * * *
But he spoke to re-asure me,
And he kissed my pallid brow,
While a reverie came o're me,
And to the church-yard bore me,
And I sighed to him before me,
Thinking him dead D'Elormie,
 Oh, I am happy now!
* * * *
And thus the words were spoken,
And this the plighted vow,
And, though my faith be broken,
And, though my heart be broken,
Behold the golden token
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That proves me happy now!
* * * *
Would God I could awaken!
For I dream I know not how,
And my soul is sorely shaken
Lest an evil step be taken,
Lest the dead who is forsaken
May not be happy now.
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NOTES
1.  The Raven was first published on the 29th January,
1845, in the New York  Evening Mirror" a paper its author
was then assistant editor of. It was prefaced by the following
words, understood to have been written by N. P. Willis:"We
are permitted to copy (in advance of publication) from the
second number of the  American Review, the following
remarkable poem by Edgar Poe. In our opinion, it is the most
effective single example of  fugitive poetry ever published in
this country, and unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle
conception, masterly ingenuity of versification, and consistent
sustaining of imaginative lift and  pokerishness. It is one of
those  dainties bred in a book which we feed on. It will stick
to the memory of everybody who reads it. In the February
number of the  American Review the poem was published as
by  Quarles, and it was introduced by the following note,
evidently suggested if not written by Poe himself.
2. The bibliographical history of  The Bells is curious. The
subject, and some lines of the original version, having been
suggested by the poet's friend, Mrs. Shew, Poe, when he
wrote out the first draft of the poem, headed it,  The Bells, By
Mrs. M. A. Shew. This draft, now the editor's property,
consists of only seventeen lines, and read thus:
I.
The bells! ah, the bells!
The little silver bells!
How fairy like a melody there floats
From their throats
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The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe [Volume 5]
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From their merry little throats
From the silver, tinkling throats
Of the bells, bells, bells
Of the bells!
* * * *
II.
The bells! ah, the bells!
* * * *
The heavy iron bells!
How horrible a monody there floats
From their throats
From their deep-toned throats
From their melancholy throats!
How I shudder at the notes Of the bells, bells, bells
Of the bells!
* * * *
In the autumn of 1848 Poe added another line to this
poem, and sent it to the editor of the  Union Magazine. It
was not published. So, in the following February, the poet
forwarded to the same periodical a much enlarged and altered
transcript. Three months having elapsed without publication,
another revision of the poem, similar to the current version,
was sent, and in the following October was published in the
 Union Magazine.
3. This poem was first published in Colton's  American
Review for December, 1847, as  To Ulalume: a Ballad.
Being reprinted immediately in the  Home Journal, it was
copied into various publications with the name of the editor,
N. P. Willis, appended, and was ascribed to him. When first
231
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