Tales and Fables

I do not know why you've come

Or why you even care

To hear a story such as mine

Of the sorrow that I bear

Is it that you enjoy suffering

I wonder with affright

As I begin my tale

Of that long forgotten night


I was a man of stable means

She was the mayor's daughter

Always smiling and praising me

For the blessings I had brought her

Her name was Lenore, and I had planned

Upon that fateful day

To ask her for her hand in marriage

On the dock within the bay


For many weeks she had been gone

A-sailing on the sea

So on the day that she was due

I walked the lighthouse quay

The clouds were rolling like the waves

The lightning striking down

And in the waters of the bay

My Lenore did drown


For many hours, then many days

We held out hope of life

Yet that day my hopes were dashed

When I heard the mournful fife

My Lenore had just been found

And her angel face did burn

Itself into my waking eyes

Upon the ship's wrecked stern


The light was gone

And Earth was bare

I could no longer linger there

Turning away from her face

I paused for one last embrace


Then I ran, far away

From my problems, from my pain

I thought I saw her angel face

Before I stopped dead in the rain


A winter's chill on an Autumn breeze

Ghostly whispers in the trees

Brings me sobbing to my knees

Crying for Lenore

I cannot stay I beg and plead

As I flail, much like a reed

I just want desperately to be freed

From the memory of before


Her memory haunts me still

Even now, unto this day

I often drown in remembrance

As I walk along the bay

Many years have come and gone

Many more will still

At least she won't be forgotten

By her grave upon the hill

Author's Notes/Comments: 

The cadence doesn't match. I know, I know, I've written it that way. Starting stable, then a quick conflict, fleeing down the lines with fright and despair, and ending forever changed. This was written by dreams and songs and I wished to keep it that way.