Beyond the Midnight Shore

In the style of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.

1 Within the night that falls so darkly, well the recollections rise,
2 The faintly glowing memories I cannot bear yet must adore,
3 The memories of love and fortune lost and thence forgotten.
4 Lost all hope of anything this love and fortune to restore—
5 Hope too lost beyond the pow’r of even angels to restore—
6 Hope, t’was lost beyond the midnight shore.

7 The velvet night stretched ‘cross the sky, the stars gleamed in their brilliant light,
8 Our love was sweet and true beyond all loves the earth once bore.
9 She took my hand in tender care and high my heart did leap,
10 Well did my heart leap, did fly, in ecstasy did soar—
11 The moment there was perfect as my spirit high did soar—
12 Then all was lost beyond the midnight shore.

13 In love’s sweet arms we had no care and nothing did we fear.
14 Of sparkling dreams and golden days I will not venture more,
15 Yet they were there, and radiant as my love’s own gentle form,
16 Which still illuminates my mind, and will forever more—
17 Locked inside my memory she is forever more—
18 Yet she is lost beyond that midnight shore.

19 The wind is howling louder now, as here I sit in wretched pain,
20 Vainly trying to drown my sorrow in some tome of learnèd lore,
21 Yet all I see, and all I hear, is her voice from the far beyond,
22 Her angel’s voice repeating soft the oath we both once swore:
23 That promise for each other made and that we both once swore
24 Before I lost her beyond that midnight shore.

25 Closing now my weary lids, the sight that greets me faint begins,
26 Yet darkens quickly—well I know the misery in store,
27 For the fever-dreams that come are now remembered nightly friends,
28 Since the night that we did wander far beside the ocean’s roar—
29 Since the night of darkness crashing down on us beside the ocean’s roar!
30 Then I lost her beyond that midnight shore.

31 My eyes behold now, in the fire, flames that flicker now to life,
32 And show the visions that I hesitate to see no more,
33 And there I see her standing, face so pale yet eyes so bright!
34 Hear I too the words she spoke—from her anguished throat they tore—
35 The words that in the bond between us a gaping chasm tore—
36 Sign that I would lose her beyond the midnight shore.

37 She told me how our love was doomed, how circumstance now ripped her free
38 Of the precious life that she and I so fervently were striving for,
39 She told me of the olden pact from long ago that bound her now
40 Of a pact that forced her now all worldly things—all life abhor!
41 To don the cold black gown and all that’s true in life abhor—
42 And I thought I’d lost her there upon the midnight shore.

43 But that was not the darkest of the torment I would meet,
44 For rapidly with kindled eye she told me how this burden wore,
45 And how she was now, in her heart, committed to an end,
46 An end that if not joy would bring some peace from all the horror—
47 So unbearable she found this pain—she called this lot horror!
48 Nothing to my loss on that midnight shore.

49 Evermore I’ll see her eyes gleam brightly there in that dim light,
50 Like the brightest stars—stars the task of illumination bore,
51 As my love told me all that soon would make my spirit break,
52 As hope began to falter, as the ocean loud did roar—
53 As the pounding sea loud and terrible in its wrath did roar—
54 The waves crashed on the midnight shore.

55 I strove with her with all my soul, I pleaded valiantly,
56 Her words, within that tone so sweet, struck me to the core,
57 I spoke of love, of hope, of dreams, of heaven lending aid,
58 I told her how the best of men such acts they must deplore—
59 How the hosts of heaven such dire acts as these deplore!
60 But she heard me not, on the midnight shore.

61 And it would betide, that scarce did I but utter these few words,
62 But dark the stormclouds rolled, o’er my heart forever more,
63 Flash of lightning o’er iron sea showed a world of storm.
64 Ah, well I know the angels saw the chasm our words tore,
65 And in anger or in sympathy a gaping hole in heaven tore,
66 All was still then on the midnight shore.
67 If it was anger t’was hardly wrought, that killed this hope of mine,
68 If sympathy I know not how this was better than before,
69 A flash and night rolled over me, oblivion sank deeply in,
70 Nothing could I fathom then, I knew then nothing more,
71 Nothing from then on could pierce the darkness more,
72 Darkness fell upon the midnight shore.

73 The storm has not abated e’en where I sit and brood today,
74 The darkness it still clings to me like gloom of days of yore,
75 I cannot help but wonder how this pattern came to be,
76 But here I know that for me now no light is left in store,
77 For nothing after hope is gone is left—for men—in store—
78 A boundary is drawn along the midnight shore.

79 The veil is drawn twixt dawn and dusk, and cannot be reclaimed,
80 Two halves that cannot reconcile, and yet cannot ignore.
81 The veil is drawn between the realms of hope and of despair,
82 And nothing now will join them, though long we may implore—
83 Though long and hard the men of earth may for this implore.
84 There is no bridge across the midnight shore.

85 And so the death of hope is knelled, with an iron bell,
86 And love is lost, is lost forever beyond the darkened shore,
87 Wise men say this makes it precious, yet I cannot perceive,
88 How so desolate and desperate a thing could be desired more,
89 More than perfect happiness until we are no more—
90 Why choose endings on the midnight shore?

91 For hope is strength, the strength of man—without it we are naught,
92 And hope is what we spend our days in search and longing for.
93 And beauty’s not in what we see, and not in what we hear,
94 But in these moments cherished, these moments we adore—
95 Without these golden moments in the gleam that we adore,
96 There’s nothing to hold us from the midnight shore.

97 The night is black, the wind still howls, and I am near undone,
98 Forgiveness nigh impossible with steel within my core.
99 I ask not for the light again but sweet release from pain,
100 For life in black despair is nothing else but—true horror,
101 Life without the hope of love is nothing else but horror.
102 I have reached already the midnight shore.

103 Despair, oblivion, utter blindness, loss of love and beauty,
104 The ending of all things—this I’ve known and more
105 And now I do not know what else to do but find relief,
106 The lines of light and dark have blurred upon the midnight shore,
107 And well I know the pain of parting on the midnight shore,
108 Blackness, then, and nothing, on the midnight shore.