The Voices of the Night
1849
The Boston Courier • Flag of Our Union Apr 28 1849
Tired of reading, tired of writing, tired of copying and inditing,
And the bed looked so inviting as if courting me to sleep,
That I folded up my paper, and extinguishing my taper,
Without cutting e’en a caper, softly to my rest did creep.
Soon I fell into a slumber, and had dreamings without number,
With no nightmares to encumber the blessings of my rest;
When a sound beneath my “winders” burst my vision into cinders—
Knocked my sleep all into flinders, so that I got up and dressed.
Such another horrid squalling and outrageous cat-er-wauling,
Never could be so appalling, as to me it seemed that night;
The Thomas cats of all creation were let out upon probation,
And were “scratching like the nation,” in an everlasting fight.
Hastily throwing up the sashes, I made divers frantic dashes
Of shovelfuls of fire and ashes on the maddened brutes below;
Quick the fiends began to scatter, and to cease their tarnal clatter;
Having settled thus the matter, I again to bed did go.
But if I should live forever, it would be all a vain endeavour,
And I’m certain I could nevermore forget the horrid fright
Which came o’er me through the sashes, when I threw the fire and ashes,
In some half-a-dozen dashes on “the voices of the night.”
The issue of Flag of Our Union where this poem was published also featured the first publication of Poe’s “For Annie”.
Return to the Quaint and Curious index for more pastiches and parodies of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”.
