Digital Raven

Digital Raven - Poem

Once upon a midnight eerie, as I coded, weak and bleary,
Over many a complex and curious function of digital lore,
While I blinked, nearing slumber, suddenly there came a number,
As if some entity softly encumbered, encumbered my computer's core.
"'T is some glitch," I muttered, "encumbering my computer's core—
Only this, and nothing more."

Ah, vividly I recall, it was in the early fall,
And each solitary signal flicker cast its phantom on the wall.
Anxiously I wished the dawn—vainly I had sought to spawn
From my code surcease of worry—worry for the error I bore—
For the rare and radiant error that the machines bore—
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken, sad, uncertain whirring of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with digital terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I sat repeating
"'T is some glitch requesting entrance at my computer's core,
Some late glitch requesting entrance at my computer's core;—
This it is, and nothing more."

But soon my spirit grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was slumbering, and so softly you came encumbering,
And so faintly you came entering, entering my computer's core,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"—here I opened wide the door;—
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen sensor
Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tapped on the silicon floor.
"Fiend," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of before!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost error!"
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!—prophet still, if code 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, code or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting—
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black pixel as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the screen before my eyes!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my screen!"
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

And the raven, never quitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid screen of a laptop just before my eyes;
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!