Heaven Is What I Cannot Reach!

Emily Dickinson (1830 1886)

Heaven is what I cannot reach!

The apple on the tree,
Provided it do hopelss hang,
That "heaven" is, to me.
The color on the cruising cloud,
The interdicted ground
Behind the hill, the house behind, -There Paradise is found!

How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43) (1845/6) Elizabeth Barrett

Browning (1806 1861)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every days
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhoods faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

The Road Not Taken (1916) Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Raven (1845) Edgar Allan Poe

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.
Tis some visitor, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door
Only this and nothing more.

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 sorrowsorrow for the lost 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 mefilled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;
This it is and nothing more.

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

Sir, said I, 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 youhere I opened wide the door;
Darkness there and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever 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, Lenore?
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, Lenore!
Merely this and nothing more.

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

Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
Surely, said I, surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;
Tis the wind and nothing more!

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.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou, I said, art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Nights Plutonian shore!
Quoth the Raven Nevermore.

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,

Though its answer little meaninglittle relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door

Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as Nevermore.

But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing farther then he utterednot a feather then he fluttered
Till I scarcely more than muttered Other friends have flown before
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.
Then the bird said Nevermore.

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,

Doubtless, said I, what 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 bore
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of Nevernevermore.

But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,

Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking Nevermore.

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing

To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosoms core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushions velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated oer,
But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating oer,
She 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.
Wretch, I cried, thy God hath lent theeby these angels he hath sent thee
Respiterespite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore;
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!
Quoth the Raven Nevermore.

Prophet! said I, thing of evil!prophet still, if bird or devil!

Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted
On this home by Horror hauntedtell me truly, I implore
Is thereis there balm in Gilead?tell metell me, I implore!
Quoth the Raven Nevermore.

Prophet! said I, thing of evil!prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that Heaven that bends above usby that God we both adore
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.
Quoth the Raven Nevermore.

Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend! I shrieked, upstarting

Get thee back into the tempest and the Nights Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath 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 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 demons that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light oer him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be liftednevermore!

Rolling in the Deep (2011) Adele

There's a fire starting in my heart

And you played it, to the beat

Reaching a fever pitch, it's bringing

me out the dark

(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in

the deep)

Finally I can see you crystal clear

[Clean version:] Go 'head and sell
me out and I'll lay your ship bare
[Explicit version:] Go 'head and sell
me out and I'll lay your shit bare
See how I leave with every piece of
you
Don't underestimate the things that
I will do

There's a fire starting in my heart

Reaching a fever pitch
And it's bringing me out the dark

The scars of your love remind me of

us
They keep me thinking that we
almost had it all
The scars of your love, they leave
me breathless
I can't help feeling
We could have had it all
(You're gonna wish you never
had met me)

Baby, I have no story to be told

But I've heard one on you
And I'm gonna make your head burn
Think of me in the depths of your
despair
Make a home down there
As mine sure won't be shared

(You're gonna wish you never had

met me)
The scars of your love remind me of
us
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the
deep)
They keep me thinking that we
almost had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had
met me)
The scars of your love, they leave
me breathless
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the
deep)
I can't help feeling

Rolling in the deep

( Repeat )

(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in

the deep)

We could have had it all

You had my heart inside of your

hand
(You're gonna wish you never
had met me)

Rolling in the deep

You had my heart inside of your
hand
But you played it, with a beating

Throw your soul through every open

door (woah)

( Repeat )

Count your blessings to find what

you look for (woah)
Turn my sorrow into treasured gold
(woah)
You'll pay me back in kind and reap
just what you sow (woah)

We could have had it all

(You're gonna wish you never had
met me)
Rolling in the deep

(You're gonna wish you never had

met me)

(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the

deep)

We could have had it all

You had my heart inside of your

hand

(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the

deep)
We could have had it all

(You're gonna wish you never had

met me)

(You're gonna wish you never had

met me)

But you played it

It all, it all, it all

You played it

(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the

deep)

You played it
You played it to the beat.