“Truly, friend, I treat you badly, your forgiveness I implore;
Surely I have not been napping, but so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping—tapping at my chamber-door,
That I scarce knew what the sound meant”—here I opened wide the door:
Darkness there, and nothing more.
VI.
Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing,
Awe-struck, thinking thoughts few mortals ever happ’d to think before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken, was the whisper’d word, “Annore!”