NEVERMORE!!!

See an annoying lill black bird hopping around a neighbor’s town? Kinda looks like Bart. Got one of your own? In this VERY long winded post (hold on tight), I will explain just where that lil bird came from.

In the first Treehouse of Horror (The Raven): Lisa, Bart, and Maggie are in the treehouse reading scary stories. Homer is hidden just outside on a limb, listening to every word…getting more and more scared by each one.

Lisa begins to tell a story (while Bart continually interrupts). It is the Simpson’s take on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”. James Earl Jones narrates the tale (VADER!). It is quite amusing. Being a lover of books, I enjoy seeing a comical interpretation of more “serious works” of writing. Gives me a whole new outlook on it. I decided to try and get the entire lines in so you can read it while looking at the pics…just like a book…yah I am a geek. 🙂

 THE RAVEN

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 —

(Homer) “‘Tis some visitor,”

I muttered,

(Homer)”tapping at my chamber door…

Only this and nothing more.”

(Bart) “Are we scared yet?”  

 Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow —

sorrow for the lost Lenore —

(Homer) “Oh, Lenore…

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore —

Nameless here for evermore

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,

(Homer)    “‘Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door –

This it is and nothing more.”

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

(Homer) “Sir,”

 said I,

(Homer) “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;

 But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,

That I scarce was sure I heard you “

— here I opened wide the door; —-

(Bart) “This better be good.”

Darkness there and nothing more.

(Homer) “Huh?”

(Bart) “You know what would have been scarier than nothing?…(Lisa) What?…(Bart) “ANYTHING!”

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,

Soon again I heard a tapping something louder than before.

(Homer) “Surely,”

said I,

(Homer) “surely that is something at my window lattice;

Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;

Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door –

Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door –

Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

(Homer)”Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,”

I said,

(Homer) “art sure no craven,

Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore –

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”

Quoth the Raven

(Bart) “Eat my shorts!”…Lisa explains to Bart that the Raven only says “Nevermore”.

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed by some unseen censor

(Homer) “Wretch,”

I cried.

(Homer) “thy God hath lent thee — by these angels he hath sent thee respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore”

(Homer) “ Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!”

Quoth the Raven

(Raven) “Nevermore.”

(Homer) “D’oh!”

(Homer) “Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!”

I shrieked, upstarting –

(Homer) “Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!

Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul has spoken!

Leave my loneliness unbroken! — quit the bust above my door!

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”

Quoth the Raven

(Raven) “Nevermore.”

(Homer) “Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”

Quoth the Raven

(Raven) “Nevermore.”

(Homer) Why you little…!

(Raven) Uh-oh!

(Homer)  Come back here, you little Raven!

(Homer) “D’ah, grf, son-of-a, d’oh!”

 Homer throws a potted plant at the Raven, who dodges the projectile.  In

 true cartoon fashion, the plant hits Homer on the head.  Tiny Ravens dance

 around Homer’s head, chanting, “Nevermore, Nevermore, Nevermore…”

 

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light 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!

So that is where that lil black bird hopping round town (or sitting there in your Halloween items for purchase).

Until the next yadda yadda yadda…blah blah blah…

***BUNNY***