THE PREMATURE BURIAL Audiobook Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe Learn English Through Story

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the premature burial by edgar allan poe

a short story from the works of edgar

allan poe the raven edition

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there are certain themes of which the

interest is all absorbing

but which are too entirely horrible for

the purposes of legitimate fiction

these the mere romanticist must ask if

he do not wish to offend or to disgust

they are with propriety handled only

when the severity and majesty of truth

sanctify and sustain them

we thrill for example with the most

intense of pleasurable pain

over the accounts of the passage of the

beresina

of the earthquake at lisbon of the

plague at london of the massacre of

saint bartholomew or of the stifling of

the 123 prisoners in the black hole of

calcutta

but in these accounts it is the fact it

is the reality it is the history which

excites

as inventions we should regard them with

simple abhorrence

i have mentioned some few of the more

prominent and august calamities on

record

but in these it is the extent not less

than the character of the calamity which

so vividly impresses the fancy

i need not remind the reader that from

the long and weird catalogue of human

miseries i might have selected many

individual instances more replete with

essential suffering than any of these

vast generalities of

disaster the true wretchedness indeed

the ultimate woe is particular not

diffuse

that the ghastly extremes of agony are

endured by man the unit and never by man

the mass

for this let us thank a merciful god

to be buried while alive is beyond

question the most terrific of these

extremes which has ever fallen to the

lot of mere mortality

that it has frequently very frequently

so fallen will scarcely be denied by

those who think

the boundaries which divide life from

death are at best shadowy and vague

who shall say where the one ends and

where the other begins

we know that there are diseases and

which occur total cessations of all the

apparent functions of vitality

and yet in which these cessations are

merely suspensions properly so-called

they are only temporary pauses in the

incomprehensible mechanism

a certain period elapses and some unseen

mysterious principle again sets in

motion the magic pinions and the wizard

wheels

the silver cord was not forever loosed

nor the golden bowl irreparably broken

but where meantime

was the soul

apart however from the inevitable

conclusion a priory that such causes

must produce such effects that the

well-known occurrence of such cases of

suspended animation must naturally give

rise now and then to premature

interments

apart from this consideration we have

the direct testimony of medical and

ordinary experience to prove that a vast

number of such internments have actually

taken place

i might refer it once if necessary to a

hundred well authenticated instances

one of very remarkable character and of

which the circumstances may be fresh in

the memory of some of my readers

occurred not very long ago in the

neighboring city of baltimore

where it occasioned a painful intense

and widely extended excitement

the wife of one of the most respectable

citizens a lawyer of eminence and a

member of congress was seized with a

sudden and unaccountable illness which

completely baffled the skill of her

physicians

after much suffering she died or was

supposed to die

no one suspected indeed or had reason to

suspect that she was not actually dead

she presented all the ordinary

appearances of death

the face assumed the usual pinched and

sunken outline the lips were of the

usual marble palette the eyes were

lustrous there was no warmth pulsation

had ceased

for three days the body was preserved

unburied during which it had acquired a

stony rigidity

the funeral in short was hastened on

account of the rapid advance of what was

supposed to be decomposition

the lady was deposited in her family

vault which for three subsequent years

was undisturbed

at the expiration of this term it was

opened for the reception of a

sarcophagus

but alas how fearful a shock awaited the

husband who personally threw open the

door

as its portal swung outwardly back some

white apparel object fell rattling

within his arms

it was the skeleton of his wife in her

yet unmolded shroud

a careful investigation rendered it

evident that she had revived within two

days after her entombment

that her struggles within the coffin had

caused it to fall from a ledge or shelf

to the floor where it was so broken as

to permit her escape

a lamp which had been accidentally left

full of oil within the tomb was found

empty it might have been exhausted

however by evaporation

on the uttermost of the steps which led

down to the dread chamber was a large

fragment of the coffin

with which it seemed that she had

endeavoured to arrest attention by

striking the iron door

while thus occupied she probably swooned

or possibly died through sheer terror

and in failing her shroud became

entangled in some iron work which

projected interiorly

thus she remained and thus she rotted

erect

in the year 1810 a case of living

inhumation happened in france

attended with circumstances which go far

to warrant the assertion that truth is

indeed stranger than fiction

the heroine of the story was a

mademoiselle victorine lafourcade a

young girl of illustrious family of

wealth and of great personal beauty

among her numerous suitors was julianne

bosue a poor literature or journalist of

paris

his talents and general amy ability had

recommended him to the notice of the

heiress by whom he seems to have been

truly beloved

but her pride of birth decided her

finally to reject him and tuere de

monsieur renel a banker and a

diplomatist of some eminence

after marriage however this gentleman

neglected and perhaps even more

positively ill-treated her

having passed with him some wretched

years she died

at least her conditions so closely

resemble death as to deceive everyone

who saw her

she was buried not in a vault but in an

ordinary grave in the village of her

nativity

filled with despair and still inflamed

by the memory of a profound attachment

the lover journeys from the capital to

the remote province in which the village

lies with the romantic purpose of

disinterring the corpse and possessing

himself of its luxuriant tresses

he reaches the grave

at midnight he unearths the coffin opens

it and is in the act of detaching the

hair when he is arrested by the

unclosing of the beloved eyes

in fact the lady had been buried alive

vitality had not altogether departed and

she was aroused by the caresses of her

lover from the lethargy which had been

mistaken for death

he bore her frantically to his lodgings

in the village he employed certain

powerful restoratives suggested by no

little medical learning

in fine she revived

she recognized her preserver she

remained with him until by slow degrees

she fully recovered her original health

her woman’s heart was not adamant

and this last session of love sufficed

to soften it

she bestowed it upon bossaway

she returned no more to her husband but

concealing from whom her resurrection

fled with her lover to america

twenty years afterward the two returned

to france and the persuasion that time

had so greatly altered the lady’s

appearance that her friends would be

unable to recognize her

they were mistaken however

for at the first meeting monsieur

rennell did actually recognize and make

claim to his wife

this claim she resisted and a judicial

tribunal sustained her in her resistance

deciding that the peculiar circumstances

with the long lapse of years had

extinguished not only equitably but

legally the authority of the husband

the shirogical journal of leapsick a

periodical of high authority and merit

which some american bookseller would do

well to translate and republish records

in a late number a very distressing

event of the character in question

an officer of artillery a man of

gigantic stature and of robust health

being thrown from an unmanageable horse

received a very severe contusion upon

the head which rendered him insensible

at once

the skull was slightly fractured but no

immediate danger was apprehended

trypanning was accomplished successfully

he was bled and many other of the

ordinary means of relief were adopted

gradually however he fell into a more

and more hopeless state of stupor

and finally it was thought that he died

the weather was warm and he was buried

with indecent haste in one of the public

cemeteries

his funeral took place on thursday

on the sunday following the grounds of

the cemetery were as usual much thronged

with visitors and about noon an intense

excitement was created by the

declaration of a peasant that while

sitting upon the grave of the officer he

had distinctly felt a commotion of the

earth as if occasioned by someone

struggling beneath

at first little attention was paid to

the man’s assertion

but his evident terror and the dogged

obstinacy with which he persisted in his

story had at length their natural effect

upon the crowd

spades were hurriedly procured and the

grave which was shamefully shallow was

in a few minutes so far thrown open that

the head of its occupant appeared

he was then seemingly dead but he sat

nearly erect within his coffin

the lid of which in his furious

struggles he had partially uplifted

he was forthwith conveyed to the nearest

hospital and they’re pronounced to be

still living although an anasphectic

condition

after some hours he revived recognized

individuals of his acquaintance and in

broken sentences spoke of his agonies in

the grave

from what he related it was clear that

he must have been conscious of life for

more than an hour while enhumed before

lapsing into insensibility

the grave was carelessly and loosely

filled with an exceedingly porous soil

and thus some air was necessarily

admitted

he heard the footsteps of the crowd

overhead and endeavoured to make himself

heard in turn

it was the tumult within the grounds of

the cemetery he said which appeared to

awaken him from a deep sleep but no

sooner was he awake then he became fully

aware of the awful horrors of his

position

this patient it is recorded was doing

well and seemed to be in a fair way of

ultimate recovery but fell a victim to

the quackeries of medical experiment

the galvanic battery was applied and he

suddenly expired in one of those

ecstatic peroxisms which occasionally it

super induces

the mention of the galvanic battery

nevertheless recalls to my memory a

well-known and very extraordinary case

in point where its action proved the

means of restoring to animation a young

attorney of london who had been interred

for two days

this occurred in

1831 and created at the time a very

profound sensation wherever it was made

the subject of converse

the patient mr edward stapleton had died

apparently of typhus fever accompanied

with some anomalous symptoms which had

excited the curiosity of his medical

attendance

upon his seeming decease his friends

were requested to sanction a post-mortem

examination but declined to permit it

as often happens when such refusals are

made the practitioners resolved to

disinter the body and dissect it at

leisure in private

arrangements were easily affected with

some of the numerous corpse of body

snatches with which london abounds and

upon the third night after the funeral

the supposed corpse was unearthed from a

grave eight feet deep and deposited in

the opening chamber of one of the

private hospitals

an incision of some extent had been

actually made in the abdomen when the

fresh and indicated appearance of the

subject suggested an application of the

battery

one experiment succeeded another and the

customary effects supervened with

nothing to characterize them in any

respect except upon one or two occasions

a more than ordinary degree of

lifelikeness in the convulsive action

it grew late the day was about to dawn

and it was thought expedient at length

to proceed at once to the dissection

a student however was especially

desirous of testing a theory of his own

and insisted upon applying the battery

to one of the pectoral muscles

a rough gash was made and a wire hastily

brought in contact when the patient with

a hurried but quite unconvulsive

movement arose from the table stepped

into the middle of the floor gazed about

him uneasily for a few seconds and then

spoke

what he said was unintelligible but

words were uttered

the solidification was distinct

having spoken he fell heavily to the

floor

for some moments all were paralyzed with

awe

but the urgency of the case soon

restored them to their presence of mind

it was seen that mr stableton was alive

although in a swoon

upon exhibition of ether he revived and

was rapidly restored to health and to

the society of his friends from whom

however all knowledge of his

resuscitation was withheld until a

relapse was no longer to be apprehended

their wonder their rapturous

astonishment may be conceived

the most thrilling peculiarity of this

incident nevertheless is involved in

what mr s himself asserts

he declares

that at no period was he altogether

insensible

that dully and confusedly he was aware

of everything which happened to him from

the moment in which he was pronounced

dead by his physicians

to that in which he fell swooning to the

floor of the hospital

i am alive were the uncomprehended words

which upon recognizing the locality of

the dissecting room he had endeavoured

in his extremity to utter

it were an easy matter to multiply such

histories as these but i forbid for

indeed we have no need of such to

establish the fact that premature

interments occur

when we reflect how very rarely from the

nature of the case we have it in our

power to detect them

we must admit that they may frequently

occur without our cognizance

scarcely in truth is a graveyard ever

encroached upon for any purpose to any

great extent that skeletons are not

found in postures which suggest the most

fearful of suspicions

fearful indeed the suspicion but more

fearful the doom

it may be asserted without hesitation

that no event is so terribly well

adapted to inspire the supremeness of

bodily and of mental distress as is

burial before death

the unendurable oppression of the lungs

the stifling fumes from the damp earth

the clinging to the death garments the

rigid embrace of the narrow house the

blackness of the absolute night

the silence like a sea that overwhelms

the unseen but palpable presence of the

conqueror worm

these things with the thoughts of the

air and grass above

with memory of dear friends who would

fly to save us if but informed of our

fate

and with consciousness that of this fate

they can never be informed

that our hopeless portion is that of the

really dead

these considerations i say carry into

the heart

which still palpitates a degree of

appalling and intolerable horror from

which the most daring imagination must

recoil

we know of nothing so agonizing upon

earth we can dream of nothing half so

hideous in the realms of the nether most

hell

and thus all narratives upon this topic

have an interest profound an interest

nevertheless which through the sacred or

of the topic itself

very properly and very peculiarly

depends upon our conviction of the truth

of the matter narrated

what i have now to tell is of my own

actual knowledge

of my own positive and personal

experience

for several years i had been subject to

attacks of the singular disorder which

physicians have agreed to term catalepsy

in default of a more definitive title

although both the immediate and the

predisposing causes and even the actual

diagnosis of this disease are still

mysterious

its obvious and apparent character is

sufficiently well understood

its variations seem to be chiefly of

degree

sometimes the patient lies for a day

only or even for a shorter period in a

species of exaggerated lethargy

he is senseless and externally

motionless but the pulsation of the

heart is still faintly perceptible

some traces of warmth remain a slight

color lingers within the center of the

cheek

and upon application of a mirror to the

lips we can detect a torpid unequal and

vacillating action of the lungs

then again the duration of the trance is

for weeks even for months

while the closest scrutiny and the most

rigorous medical tests fail to establish

any material distinction between the

state of the sufferer and what we

conceive of absolute death

very usually he is saved from premature

interment solely by the knowledge of his

friends that he has been previously

subject to catalepsy by the consequent

suspicion excited and above all by the

non-appearance of decay

the advances of the melody are luckily

gradual

the first manifestations although marked

are unequivocal

the fits grow successively more and more

distinctive and endure each for a longer

term than the proceeding

in this lies the principal security from

inhumation

the unfortunate whose first attack

should be of the extreme character which

is occasionally seen would almost

inevitably be consigned alive to the

tomb

my own case differed in no important

particular from those mentioned in

medical books

sometimes without any apparent cause i

sank little by little into a condition

of semi syncope or half swoon

and in this condition without pain

without ability to stir or strictly

speaking to think

but with a dull lethargic consciousness

of life and of the presence of those who

surrounded my bed i remained until the

crisis of the disease restored me

suddenly to perfect sensation

at other times i was quickly and

impetuously smitten

i grew sick and numb and chilly and

dizzy and so fell prostrate at once

then for weeks all was void and black

and silent and nothing became the

universe

total annihilation could be no more

from these latter attacks i awoke

however with a gradation slow in

proportion to the suddenness of the

seizure

just as the day dawns to the

friendliness and houseless beggar who

roams the streets throughout the long

desolate winter night

just so tiredly just so wearily just so

cheerily came back the light of the soul

to me

apart from the tendency to trance

however my general health appeared to be

good

nor could i perceive that it was at all

affected by the one prevalent malady

unless indeed an idiosyncrasy in my

ordinary sleep may be looked upon as

super induced

upon awaking from slumber i could never

gain at once thorough position of my

senses and always remained for many

minutes in much bewilderment and

perplexity

the mental faculties in general but the

memory in a special being in a condition

of absolute obeyance

in all that i endured there was no

physical suffering but of moral distress

and infinitude

my fancy grew channel i talked of worms

of tombs and epitaphs

i was lost in reveries of death and the

idea of premature burial held continual

possession of my

brain the ghastly danger to which i was

subjected haunted me day and night

in the former the torture of meditation

was excessive in the latter supreme

when the grim darkness overspread the

earth then with every horror of thought

i shook

shook as the quivering plumes upon the

hearse

when nature could endure wakefulness no

longer it was with a struggle that i

consented to sleep

for i shuddered to reflect that upon

awaking i might find myself the tenant

of a grave

and when finally i sank into slumber it

was only to rush it once into a world of

phantasms above which with vast sable

overshadowing wing hovered predominant

the one sepulchral idea

from the innumerable images of gloom

which thus oppressed me in dreams i

select for record but a solitary vision

me thought i was immersed in a

cataleptic trance of more than usual

duration and profundity

suddenly there came an icy hand upon my

forehead

and an impatient gibbering voice

whispered the word arise within my ear

i sat erect the darkness was total i

could not see the figure of him who had

aroused me i could call to mind neither

the period at which i had fallen into

the trance nor the locality in which i

then lay

while i remained motionless and busied

and endeavours to collect my thought

the cold hand grasped me fiercely by the

rest shaking it petulantly while the

gibbering voice said again arise did i

not bid thee arise

and who i demanded are thou

i have no name in the regions which i

inhabit replied the voice mournfully i

was mortal but am fiend

i was merciless but am pitiful

thou dost feel that i shudder my teeth

chatter as i speak yet it is not with

the chilliness of the night

of the night without end but this

hideousness is insufferable how canst

thou tranquilly sleep

i cannot rest for the cry of these great

agonies these sights are more than i can

bear get thee up

come with me into the outer night and

let me unfold to thee the graves

is not this a spectacle of woe

behold

i looked

and the unseen figure which still

grasped me by the wrist had caused to be

thrown open the graves of all mankind

and from each issued the faint

phosphoric radiance of decay

so that i could see into the innermost

recesses

and their view the shrouded bodies in

their sad and solemn slumbers with the

worm

but alas the real sleepers were fewer

by many millions than those who

slumbered not at all

and there was a feeble struggling and

there was a general sad unrest

and from out the depths of the countless

bids there came a melancholy rustling

from the garments of the buried

and of those who seemed tranquilly to

repose

i saw that a vast number had changed in

a greater or less degree the rigid and

uneasy position in which they had

originally been entombed

and the voice again said to me as i

gazed

is it not

oh is it not a pitiful sight

but before i could find words to reply

the figure had ceased to grasp my wrist

the phosphoric lights expired and the

graves were closed with a sudden

violence

while from out them arose a tumult of

despairing cries saying again is it not

o god is it not a very pitiful sight

fantasies such as these presenting

themselves at night extended their

terrific influence far into my waking

hours

my nerves became thoroughly unstrung and

i fell a prey to perpetual horror

i hesitated to ride or to walk or to

indulge in any exercise that would carry

me from home

in fact i no longer dared trust myself

out of the immediate presence of those

who were aware of my proneness to

catalepsy lest falling into one of my

usual fists i should be buried before my

real condition could be ascertained

i doubted the care the fidelity of my

dearest friends i dreaded that in some

trance of more than customary duration

they might be prevailed upon to regard

me as irrecoverable

i even went so far as to fear that as i

occasioned much trouble they might be

glad to consider any very protracted

attack a sufficient excuse for getting

rid of me altogether

it was in vain they endeavored to

reassure me by the most solemn promises

i exacted the most sacred oaths that

under no circumstances they would bury

me until decomposition had so materially

advanced as to render father

preservation impossible

and even then

my mortal terrors would listen to no

reason would accept no consolation

i entered into a series of elaborate

precautions

among other things i had the family

vault so remodeled as to admit of being

readily opened from within

the slightest pressure upon a long lever

that extended far into the tomb will

cause the iron portal to fly back

there were arrangements also for the

free admission of air and light and

convenient receptacles for food and

water within immediate reach of the

coffin intended for my reception

this coffin was warmly and softly padded

it was provided with a lid fashioned

upon the principle of the vault door

with the addition of springs so

contrived that the feebless movement of

the body would be sufficient to set it

at liberty besides all this there was

suspended from the roof of the tomb a

large bell

the rope of which it was designed should

extend through a hole in the coffin and

so be fastened to one of the hands of

the corpse

but alas

what avails the vigilance against the

destiny of man

not even these well-contrived securities

sufficed to save from the uttermost

agonies of living inhumation

a wretch to these agonies for doomed

there arrived an epoch as often before

they had arrived in which i found myself

emerging from total unconsciousness into

the first feeble and indefinite sense of

existence slowly with a tortoise

gradation approached the faint grey dawn

of the cycle day

a torpid uneasiness an apathetic

endurance of dull pain

no care no hope no effort then after a

long interval a ringing in the ears

then after a lapse still longer a

prickling or tingling sensation in the

extremities

then a seemingly external period of

pleasurable quiescence during which the

awakening feelings are struggling into

thought

then a brief re-sinking into non-entity

then a sudden recovery

at length the slight quivering of an

eyelid and immediately thereupon an

electric shock of a terror deadly and

indefinite which sends the blood and

torrents from the temples to the heart

and now the first positive effort to

think

and now the first endeavor to remember

and now a partial and evanescent success

and now the memory has so far regained

its dominion that in some measure i am

cognizant of my state

i feel that i am not awaking from

ordinary sleep

i recollect that i have been subject to

catalepsy and now at last as if by the

rush of an ocean my shuddering spirit is

overwhelmed by the one grim danger by

the one spectral and ever prevalent idea

for some minutes after this fancy

possessed me i remained without motion

and why

i could not summon courage to move i

dared not make the effort which was to

satisfy me of my fate

and yet there was something at my heart

which whispered me it was sure

despair such as no other species of

wretchedness ever calls into being

despair alone urged me after long

irresolution to uplift the heavy lids of

my eyes

i uplifted them it was dark all dark

i knew that the fit was over i knew that

the crisis of my disorder had long

passed i knew that i had now fully

recovered the use of my visual faculties

and yet it was dark

all dark

the intense and utter ratelessness of

the night that endureth

i endeavoured to shriek and my lips and

my parched tongue moved convulsively

together in the attempt but no voice

issued from the cavernous lungs which

oppressed as if by the weight of some

incumbent mountain gasped and palpitated

with the heart at every elaborate and

struggling inspiration

the movement of the jaws and this effort

to cry aloud showed me that they were

bound up as is usual with the dead

i felt too that i lay upon some hard

substance

and by something similar my sides were

also closely compressed

so far i had not ventured to stir any of

my limbs

but now i violently threw up my arms

which had been lying at length with the

wrists crossed

they struck a solid wooden substance

which extended above my person at an

elevation of not more than six inches

from my face

i could no longer doubt that i reposed

within a coffin at last

and now amid all my infinite miseries

came sweetly the cherub hope

for i thought of my precautions

i writhed and made spasmodic exertions

to force open the lid it would not move

i felt my wrist for the bell rope it was

not to be found

and now the comforter fled forever and a

still sterner despair reigned triumphant

for i could not help perceiving the

absence of the paddings which i had so

carefully prepared and then two there

came suddenly to my nostrils the strong

peculiar odor of moist earth

the conclusion was irresistible i was

not within the vault i had fallen into a

trance while absent from home while

among strangers

when or how i could not remember and it

was they who had buried me as a dog

nailed up in some common coffin and

thrust deep

deep and forever into some ordinary and

nameless grave

as this awful conviction forced itself

thus into the innermost chambers of my

soul

i once again struggled to cry aloud

and in this second endeavor i succeeded

a long wild and continuous shriek or

yell of agony resounded through the

realms of the subterranean night

hello

hello there

said a gruff voice in reply

what the devil’s a matter now said a

second

get out of that said a third

what do you mean by yelling in that air

kind of style like a catty mount said a

fourth

and hereupon i was seized and shaken

without ceremony for several minutes by

a juntu of very rough looking

individuals

they did not arouse me from my slumber

for i was wide awake when i screamed but

they restored me to the full possession

of my memory

this adventure occurred near richmond in

virginia accompanied by a friend i had

proceeded upon a gunning expedition some

miles down the banks of the james river

knight approached and we were overtaken

by a storm

the cabin of a small sloop lying at

anchor in the stream and laid him with

garden mold afforded us the only

available shelter

we made the best of it and passed the

night on board

i slept in one of the only two birds in

the vessel and the birds of a sloop of

60 or 20 tons need scarcely be described

that which i occupied had no betting of

any kind

its extreme width was 18 inches the

distance of its bottom from the deck

overhead was precisely the same

i found it a matter of exceeding

difficulty to squeeze myself in

nevertheless i slept soundly and the

whole of my vision for it was no dream

and no nightmare arose naturally from

the circumstances of my position

from my ordinary bias of thought

and from the difficulty to which i have

alluded of collecting my senses and

especially of regaining my memory for a

long time after awaking from slumber

the men who shook me were the crew of

the sloop and some laborers engaged to

unload it from the load itself came the

earthly smell the bandage about the jaws

was a silk handkerchief in which i had

bound up my head in default of my

customary night cap

the torches endured however were

indubitably quite equal for the time to

those of actual separature they were

fearfully they were inconceivably

hideous

but out of evil proceeded good

for their very excess wrought in my

spirit and inevitable revulsion my soul

acquired tone

acquired temper

i went abroad i took vigorous exercise i

breathed the three air of heaven i

thought upon other subjects then death

i discarded my medical books

boo can i burned i read no night

thoughts no fustion about church yards

no bugaboo tales such as this

in short i became a new man and lived a

man’s life

from that memorable night i dismissed

forever my channel apprehensions and

with them vanished the catalytic

disorder of which perhaps they had been

less the consequence than the cause

there are moments when even to the sober

eye of reason the world of our sad

humanity may assume the semblance of a

hell

but the imagination of man is no

characters to explore with impunity its

every cavern

alas the grim legion of sepulchral

terrors cannot be regarded as altogether

fanciful

but like the demons in whose company a

frasier made his voyage down the oxis

they must sleep or they will devour us

they must be suffered to slumber

or we perish

[Music]

end of the premature burial by edgar

allan poe

[Music]

thank you for listening

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