image of a star-eyed Genius with the final torch, the exquisite semblance
of one whose vision beholds, but whose lips may not utter, the mysteries of
a land beyond "the door of a legended tomb."

EDMUND C. STEDMAN.




THE POEM.




[Illustration]




THE RAVEN.


Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'T is some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--
Only this, and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,