Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “Lenore” (Text-16), J. L. Graham copy of The Raven and Other Poems (1845), with Poe's manuscript changes 1845-1849, pp. 14-15


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[page 14:]

LENORE.

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AH, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!

Let the bell toll! — a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;

And, Guy De Vere, hast thou no tear? — weep now or never more!

See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!

Come! let the burial rite be read — the funeral song be sung! —

An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young —

A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.

“Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride,

“And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her — that she died!

“How shall the ritual, then, be read? — the requiem how be sung

“By you — by yours, the evil eye, — by yours, the slanderous tongue

“That did to death the innocence that died, and died so young?”

Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song

Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel no wrong!

The sweet Lenore hath “gone before,” with Hope, that flew beside,

Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride — [page 15:]

For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies,

The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes —

The life still there, upon her hair — the death upon her eyes.

“Avaunt! — avaunt! from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven —

“From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven —

“From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven! —

[[“]]Let no bell toll, then! — lest her soul, amid its hallowed mirth,

[[“]]Should catch the note as it doth float up from the damnéd Earth! —

[[“]]And I! — to-night my heart is light! — No dirge will I upraise

[[“]]But waft the angel on her flight with a Pæan of old days![[”]]

 


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Notes:

This version of the poem has incorporated Poe's manuscript changes, pencilled in his own copy of The Raven and Other Poems. Several quotation marks have been editorially inserted in the text given here, detailed as follows: Poe does not explicitly begin the final four lines with quote marks, but that is the pattern of previous lines, and the lines as they were originally printed. He struck out the ending quotation mark after “Heaven!,” clearly indicating that he intended to continue the quotation. He also omits the final quotation mark, but one would be grammatically required. Poe does not italicize “no” in the fourth line of the final stanza.

All of Poe's changes are in the last stanza, in which he has rearranged the lines, with some other minor modifications in wording.

For a detailed analysis of the changes made in this version, see the study text.

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[S:1 - RAOP-JLG, 1845-1849 (fac, 1941)] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Lenore (Text-16)