| |
| TWO worlds there are. To one our eyes we strain, | |
| Whose magic joys we shall not see again; | |
| Bright haze of morning veils its glimmering shore. | |
| Ah, truly breathed we there | |
| Intoxicating air— | 5 |
| Glad were our hearts in that sweet realm of | |
| Nevermore. | |
| |
| The lover there drank her delicious breath | |
| Whose love has yielded since to change or death; | |
| The mother kissed her child, whose days are o’er. | 10 |
| Alas! too soon have fled | |
| The irreclaimable dead: | |
| We see them—visions strange—amid the | |
| Nevermore. | |
| |
| The merrysome maiden used to sing— | 15 |
| The brown, brown hair that once was wont to cling | |
| To temples long clay-cold: to the very core | |
| They strike our weary hearts, | |
| As some vexed memory starts | |
| From that long faded land—the realm of | 20 |
| Nevermore. | |
| |
| It is perpetual summer there. But here | |
| Sadly may we remember rivers clear, | |
| And harebells quivering on the meadow-floor. | |
| For brighter bells and bluer, | 25 |
| For tenderer hearts and truer | |
| People that happy land—the realm of | |
| Nevermore. | |
| |
| Upon the frontier of this shadowy land | |
| We pilgrims of eternal sorrow stand: | 30 |
| What realm lies forward, with its happier store | |
| Of forests green and deep, | |
| Of valleys hushed in sleep, | |
| And lakes most peaceful? ’T is the land of | |
| Evermore. | 35 |
| |
| Very far off its marble cities seem— | |
| Very far off—beyond our sensual dream— | |
| Its woods, unruffled by the wild wind’s roar; | |
| Yet does the turbulent surge | |
| Howl on its very verge. | 40 |
| One moment—and we breathe within the | |
| Evermore. | |
| |
| They whom we loved and lost so long ago | |
| Dwell in those cities, far from mortal woe— | |
| Haunt those fresh woodlands, whence sweet carollings soar. | 45 |
| Eternal peace have they; | |
| God wipes their tears away: | |
| They drink that river of life which flows from | |
| Evermore. | |
| |
| Thither we hasten through these regions dim, | 50 |
| But, lo, the wide wings of the Seraphim | |
| Shine in the sunset! On that joyous shore | |
| Our lightened hearts shall know | |
| The life of long ago: | |
| The sorrow-burdened past shall fade for | 55 |
| Evermore. | |
| |
