“Say it once again with feeling How the death rattle breathing Silenced as the soul was leaving The deflation of our dreaming Leaving me bereft and reeling My beloved ghost and me Sitting in a tree D-Y-I-N-G”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify the bridge's rolling rhyme, alliterative elements, and sustained sound patterns as reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe's work, specifically naming The Raven. Uncle Jerry notes that Poe 'does understand how to use poetics and he does know what assonance and rhyme and alliteration and all those things work,' and that the bridge shares this quality of beautiful sound when read aloud.
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify The Raven as a key reference for the song. Uncle Jerry notes that the word 'evermore' appears in Poe's poem, that the Raven enters through an open window (echoing the open window in the song's chorus), and that the speaker of The Raven may be having the same kind of internal dialogue, the Raven lands on a bust of Pallas Athena (goddess of wisdom/the mind), suggesting the speaker may be conversing with himself, just as the song's speaker may be conversing with herself. Uncle Jerry initially considered fairy tales as a framing but quickly confirmed The Raven as the stronger connection after reading the first verse's 'gray November' atmosphere.