Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten loreâ
  While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a whacking,
As of some one incessantly smacking, rapping at my chamber door.
ââTis some ânice guyâ,â I muttered, âtapping at my chamber doorâ
      Only this and nothing more.â
  Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying brain cell wrought its ghost upon the floor.
  Eagerly I wished the morrow;âvainly I had sought to borrow
  From my Netflix a surcease of sorrowâsorrow for the idea that Iâm a point to scoreâ
For I may be a rare and radiant maiden whom the dipshits want more and moreâ
      After rejection, named a whore.
  And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled meâfilled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
  So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
  ââTis some fuckboy entreating entrance at my chamber doorâ
Some late fuckboy entreating entrance at my chamber door;â
      This it is and nothing more.â
  Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
âHey,â said I, âyou dick,â trulyâ your forgiveness I implore;
  But the fact is I was napping, and so annoyingly you came rapping,
  And so loudly you came smacking, smacking at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure could pretend to not have I heard youââhere I opened wide the door;â
      Fuckboy there who named me whore.
  Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams all women dared to dream before;
  But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
  And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, âWhore?â
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, âWhore!ââ
      Merely this and nothing more.
  Back into my chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
  âSurely,â said I, âsurely that is something at my window lattice;
   Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery exploreâ
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;â
      âTis the nice guy and nothing more!â
  Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Nice Guy of the saintly days of yore;
  Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
  But, with mien of lord not lady, perched upon my chamber floorâ
Perched my messy bed just above my chamber floorâ
      Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this Nice Guy beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
âThough thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,â I said, âart sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Nice Guy wandering from the Nightly shoreâ
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Nightâs Plutonian shore!â
      Quoth the Nice Guy âLet me score.â
  Much I marvelled this ungainly Nice Guy l to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaningâlittle relevancy bore;
  For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
  Ever yet was blessed with seeing entitled brat above her chamber floorâ
Bird or beast upon the messy bed above his chamber floor,
      With such game as âLet me score.â
  But the Nice Guy, sitting lonely on the placid bed, spoke only
That one phrase, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
  Nothing farther then he utteredânot a eyelash then he flutteredâ
  Till I scarcely more than muttered âOther âfriendsâ have flown beforeâ
On the morrow you will leave me, as those dopes have flown before.â
      Then the Nice guy said âLemme score.â
  Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
âDoubtless,â said I, âwhat it utters is its only stock and store
  Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
  Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden boreâ
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
      Of âLet me scoreâ.â
  But the Nice Guy still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of him, and bed and door;
  Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
  Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous boy of yoreâ
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous boy of yore
      Meant in croaking âLet me score.â
  This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the foul creature whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosomâs core;
  This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
  On the cushionâs velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated oâer,
But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating oâer,
      He shall press, ah, nevermore!
  Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
  âWretch,â I cried, âthy God hath lent theeâby these angels he hath sent thee
  Respiteârespite and nepenthe from thy memories of opening the door;
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this opening of the door!â
      Quoth the Nice Guy âLemme score.â
  âProphet!â said I, âthing of evil!âprophet still, if human or devil!â
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
  Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchantedâ
  On this home by Horror hauntedâtell me truly, I imploreâ
Is thereâis there balm in Gilead?âtell meâtell me, I implore!â
      Quoth the Nice Guy âYouâre a whore.â
  âProphet!â said I, âthing of evil!âprophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above usâby that God we both adoreâ
  Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
  It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named not as a scoreâ
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named not as a score.â
      Quoth the Nice Guy âYouâre a whore.â
  âBe that word our sign of parting, beast or fiend!â I shrieked, upstartingâ
âGet thee back into the tempest and the Nightâs Plutonian shore!
  Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
  Leave my loneliness unbroken!âquit the bed above my floor!
Take thy hands from out my heart, and take thy form from off my floor!â
      Quoth the Nice Guy âYouâre a whore.â
  And the Nice Guys, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On whatever they can get, just outside my chamber door;
  And their eyes have all the seeming of a demonâs that is dreaming,
  And the lamp-light oâer them streaming throws their shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
      Shall be liftedâCause Iâm not a point to score!