You may meet with better fortune, and be brilliant as of yore.”

Quoth the Drama, “Nevermore!”

“Why this tone of bitter anguish?” I inquired; “you seem to languish

’Neath some very dreadful burden; state the reason, I implore!

Tell me plainly, now, what is it, that has caused this sudden visit—

Why the unexpected entrance of your figure through my door?

Why that stagey exclamation that you uttered just before,—

That expression, ‘Nevermore?’”

Still it groaned, and I retreated, as that sentence it repeated.

“What! again?” I said. “Pray, drop it; though your grief is doubtless sore,