“O craving heart, for the lost flowers/ And sunshine of my summer hours!/ The undying voice of that dead time,/ With its interminable chime,/ Rings in the spirit of a spell, / Upon thy emptiness--a knell. / I have not always been as now:”
“Yes, Heaven is thine; but thisIs a world of sweets and sours;Our flowers are merely - flowers,And the shadow of thy perfect blissIs the sunshine of ours.”
“And, though my faith be broken, And, though my heart be broken,Here is a ring, as tokenThat I am happy now!”
“From childhood's hour I have not been. As others were, I have not seen. As others saw, I could not awaken. My heart to joy at the same tone. And all I loved, I loved alone.”
“Thy soul shall find itself alone ’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—Not one, of all the crowd, to pry Into thine hour of secrecy. Be silent in that solitude, Which is not loneliness—for then The spirits of the dead who stood In life before thee are again In death around thee—and their will Shall overshadow thee: be still. [...]”
“Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”
“Yes I now feel that it was then on that evening of sweet dreams- that the very first dawn of human love burst upon the icy night of my spirit. Since that period I have never seen nor heard your name without a shiver half of delight half of anxiety.”