Page:The Raven; with literary and historical commentary.djvu/133

If a living human being ever had the gift of seeing
The grim and ghastly countenance its evil genius wore,
It was thou, unhappy master, whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till thy song one burden bore—
Till the dirges of thy hope the melancholy burden bore—
Of never, nevermore.

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Numberless other parodies, more or less smart or inane, as the case may be, have appeared, and continue to appear, in American, British, and Colonial publications. Many of the best of these imitations have appeared in the London Punch, but others of scarcely less vigour have been published in the minor comic papers. Those of our readers who feel interested in this branch of our theme will find a large and varied collection of these imitations, they might fitly be termed desecrations of The Raven, in Mr. Walter Hamilton's collection of Parodies, now publishing^[1] monthly: from it some of our specimens have been drawn. This section of our book may properly conclude with the following quotation from Funny Folks Annual for 1884, entitled The End of the Raven:—

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1. Reeves & Turner, 196, Strand, W.C.