One morning after the dew had kissed,
a blackbird flew to me in a mist.
It settled grimly in the old willow tree,
"I come from hell," it said to me.

No sooner said and then it was gone,
only to return the following dawn.
I gazed at it with my wondering eyes,
"I come from hell," came its eerie cries.

All through the day and in slumber's spell,
I heard it scream, "I come from hell!"
And every morning the bird would appear,
"I come from hell," it shrieked all to near.

For one year and an extra day,
the bird was there at light's first ray.
The moment I opened my front door,
"I come from hell," and then no more.

One day before flying in the mist,
I seized it quickly within my fist.
Its angry shrieking filled my head,
"I come from hell," it repeatedly said.

I ignored the pain as it tore at my hand;
I smiled at the creature, my smile grand.
I snapped its neck in my maddened rage,
and threw its corpse in a gilded cage.

I slept that night, a most restless sleep,
and prayed the lord, my soul to keep.
In the morning at the cage I cried,
for you see, the bird was not inside.

I looked outside and in the willow tree,
but the bird was nowhere I could see.
Perplexed & shaken, back among my peers,
my heart gripped with stone cold fears.

I went to bed and in my dreams,
I was haunted by the bird's last screams.
And when I awoke to the morning sun,
I finally realized what I had done.

With one shrill cry and a thousand wings,
they bore down on me, the hateful things.
And as I succumbed to the numbing black,
I heard "We come from hell, & there is no way back."

Wow!!

Wow is right!

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more."

~edgar allen poe