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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