By a route obscure and lonely,

Haunted by ill angels only,

[[n]]

Where an Eidolon, named Night,

On a black throne reigns upright,

5

I have reached these lands but newly

[[n]]

From an ultimate dim Thule —

From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,

[[n]]

Out of Space — out of Time.

 

[[n]]

Bottomless vales and boundless floods,

10

And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,

With forms that no man can discover

[[v]]

[[n]]

For the tears that drip all over;

[[v]]

[[n]]

Mountains toppling evermore

Into seas without a shore;

15

Seas that restlessly aspire,

Surging, unto skies of fire;

Lakes that endlessly outspread

[[n]]

Their lone waters — lone and dead, —

Their still waters — still and chilly

20

[[v]]

[[n]]

With the snows of the lolling lily.

 

[[n]]

By the lakes that thus outspread

Their lone waters, lone and dead, —

Their sad waters, sad and chilly

With the snows of the lolling lily, —

25

[[v]]

By the mountains — near the river

Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever, — [page 108:]

By the grey woods, — by the swamp

Where the toad and the newt encamp, —

By the dismal tarns and pools

30

[[n]]

Where dwell the Ghouls, —

By each spot the most unholy —

In each nook most melancholy, —

[[n]]

There the traveller meets aghast

Sheeted Memories of the Past —

35

Shrouded forms that start and sigh

As they pass the wanderer by —

White-robed forms of friends long given,

[[v]]

In agony, to the Earth — and Heaven.

 

For the heart whose woes are legion

40

’Tis a peaceful, soothing region —

For the spirit that walks in shadow

[[v]]

[[n]]

O! it is an Eldorado!

[[n]]

But the traveller, travelling through it,

May not — dare not openly view it;

45

Never its mysteries are exposed

[[v]]

To the weak human eye unclosed;

[[v]]

So wills its King, who hath forbid

The uplifting of the fringed lid;

And thus the sad Soul that here passes

50

[[n]]

Beholds it but through darkened glasses.

 

By a route obscure and lonely,

Haunted by ill angels only, [page 109:]

Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,

On a black throne reigns upright,

55

I have wandered home but newly

From this ultimate dim Thule.

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