Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
The refrain ends every stanza from the entrance of the bird onward. Poe described how he built the poem around the word in his 1846 essay The Philosophy of Composition, and chose it for its sound.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, / Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
It was many and many a year ago, / In a kingdom by the sea,
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely players;
Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me –
Break, break, break, / On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! / And I would that my tongue could utter / The thoughts that arise in me.