Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever! <br /> Let the bell toll!- a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river; <br /> And, Guy de Vere, hast thou no tear?- weep now or nevermore! <br /> See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore! <br /> Come! let the burial rite be read- the funeral song be sung!- <br /> An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young- <br /> A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young. <br /> <br /> "Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride, <br /> And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her- that she died! <br /> How shall the ritual, then, be read?- the requiem how be sung <br /> By you- by yours, the evil eye,- by yours, the slanderous tongue <br /> That did to death the innocence that died, and died so young?" <br /> <br /> Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song <br /> Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel no wrong. <br /> The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside, <br /> Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy <br /> bride. <br /> For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies, <br /> The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes <br /> The life still there, upon her hair- the death upon her eyes. <br /> <br /> "Avaunt! avaunt! from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven- <br /> From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven- <br /> From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of <br /> Heaven! <br /> Let no bell toll, then,- lest her soul, amid its hallowed mirth, <br /> Should catch the note as it doth float up from the damned Earth! <br /> And I!- to-night my heart is light!- no dirge will I upraise, <br /> But waft the angel on her flight with a Paean of old days!"<br /><br />Edgar Allan Poe<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lenore/
