"... for to-day I thee
A hundred leagues must bear,
My nuptial couch to share."
Lenore complies, though after some questioning, and they make off through the moonlight. The pace is wild and terrible. They pass a train of mourners bearing a coffin to the grave, but at the behest of the bewildering bridegroom the funeral party leaves the body and joins in the mad ride. The croaking of night birds is heard, and spectres are seen dancing about a gibbet.
"How all beneath the moonbeams flew,
How flew it far and fast!
How o'er their head the heavens blue
And stars flew swiftly past!
'Love, fear'st thou aught? The moon shines bright.
Hurrah! The dead ride quick by night!
Dost fear, my love, the dead?'
'Ah! speak not of the dead!'"
Finally, as day begins to break, they dash through an iron gateway into a graveyard. Then Lenore beholds a horrid transformation in her lover:
"The rider's jerkin, piece by piece,
Like tinder falls asunder.
Upon his head no lock of hair—
A naked skull, all grisly bare;
A skeleton, alas!
With scythe and hour-glass."
The "snorting charger" vanishes in flame; dreadful cries fill the air; in the moonlight grisly spirits are seen dancing, and howling as they dance:
"For hear! for hear! though hearts should break,
Blaspheme not, lest God's wrath thou wake!
Thy body's knell we toll,
May God preserve thy soul!"
PART I. HAPPINESS IN LOVE
Allegro
Andante quasi larghetto
The first movement of Raff's symphony ("Happiness in Love") portrays the felicity of the lovers before the departure of William for the wars. "Tenderness and longing speak out," changing to "anxiety and foreboding." "The second part of the movement is a delightful representation of the discourse of the lovers, in which it is not difficult to imagine William listening to the anxious expressions of Lenore and seeking to quiet her and allay her apprehensions."