No More Learning

It was the dead who groaned within.

1845.




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
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.

1845.

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.

["The following lines from a correspondent-besides the deep, quaint
strain of the sentiment, and the curious introduction of some ludicrous
touches amidst the serious and impressive, as was doubtless intended by
the author-appears to us one of the most felicitous specimens of unique
rhyming which has for some time met our eye. The resources of
English rhythm for varieties of melody, measure, and sound, producing
corresponding diversities of effect, having been thoroughly studied,
much more perceived, by very few poets in the language. While the
classic tongues, especially the Greek, possess, by power of accent,
several advantages for versification over our own, chiefly through
greater abundance of spondaic: feet, we have other and very great
advantages of sound by the modern usage of rhyme. Alliteration is nearly
the only effect of that kind which the ancients had in common with
us. It will be seen that much of the melody of 'The Raven' arises from
alliteration, and the studious use of similar sounds in unusual places.
In regard to its measure, it may be noted that if all the verses were
like the second, they might properly be placed merely in short lines,
producing a not uncommon form; but the presence in all the others of
one line-mostly the second in the verse" (stanza? )--"which flows
continuously, with only an aspirate pause in the middle, like that
before the short line in the Sapphic Adonic, while the fifth has at the
middle pause no similarity of sound with any part besides, gives the
versification an entirely different effect. We could wish the capacities
of our noble language in prosody were better understood. "--ED. "Am.
Rev. "]

2.