il!--prophet still, if bird or devil!--
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted--
On this home by Horror haunted--tell me truly, I implore--
Is there--_is_ there balm in Gilead?--tell me--tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!--prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us, by that God we both adore,
Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore--
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked,
upstarting--
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!--quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor,
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted--nevermore!

ROBERT TOOMBS.

~1810=1885.~

[Illustration: ~Robert Toombs.~]

ROBERT TOOMBS was born at Washington, Georgia, and studied at the
University of Georgia, then under the presidency of the famous Dr.
Moses Waddell; he afterwards attended Union College, Schenectady,
N. Y., and studied law at the University of Virginia. He settled in
his native town for legal practice and was so successful as to amass a
fortune within a few years. He served in the State Legislature and in
1845 was elected to Congress. In 1861, being a member of the United
States Senate, he took leave of it in order to join his State in
secession. He was appointed to the Confederate Cabinet, but soon
resigned and became a general in the field. After the war he was
ordered to be captured and held for trial as a traitor with Jefferson
Davis and Alexander H. Stephens; but he was never taken. He escaped
afte