Before the Dismal Ages, A.D. 18——
“Once upon a midnight dreary, as I ponder’d weak and weary
Over many a weary volume of recent published lore—
While I nodded o’er ‘The Sleeper,[7]’ suddenly I heard a creeper,
As of some one peering deeper-deeper in my chamber door;
’Tis some author new, I mutter’d, or some other midnight bore;
Only this and nothing more!”
“Oh! distinctly I that volume do remember in its solemn
And sleepy double column as it fell upon the floor—
Eagerly I wished to borrow from ‘Cooper’s Last’ of sorrow,