Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “Ulalume. A Ballad” (Comparative Text)

 

Title: ULALUME: {{1848-02 — }} A BALLAD

 

Line-01-001: The skies they were ashen and sober;

Line-01-002: [indent] The leaves they were crisped and sere —

Line-01-003: [indent] The leaves they were withering and sere;

Line-01-004: It was night in the lonesome October

Line-01-005: [indent] Of my most immemorial year;

Line-01-006: It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,

Line-01-007: [indent] In the misty mid region of Weir —

Line-01-008: It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,

Line-01-009: [indent] In the {{1848-01 ghoul-haunted //1848-02: ghoul haunted [[ghoul-haunted]] }} woodland of Weir.

 

Line-01-010: Here once, through an alley Titanic,

Line-01-011: [indent] Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul —

Line-01-012: [indent] Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.

Line-01-013: These were days when my heart was volcanic

Line-01-014: [indent] As the scoriac rivers that roll —

Line-01-015: [indent] As the lavas that restlessly roll

Line-01-016: Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek

Line-01-017: [indent] In the ultimate climes of the pole —

Line-01-018: That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek

Line-01-019: [indent] In the realms of the boreal pole.

 

Line-01-020: Our talk had been serious and sober,

Line-01-021: [indent] But our thoughts they were palsied and sere —

Line-01-022: [indent] Our memories were treacherous and sere —

Line-01-023: For we knew not the month was October,

Line-01-024: [indent] And we marked not the night of the year —

Line-01-025: [indent] (Ah, night of all nights in the year!)

Line-01-026: We noted not the dim lake of Auber —

Line-01-027: [indent] (Though once we had journeyed down here) —

Line-01-028: {{1848-01 We remembered //1848-02: Remembered }} not the dank tarn of Auber,

Line-01-029: [indent] Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

 

Line-01-030: And now, as the night was senescent

Line-01-031: [indent] {{1848-01 And //1848-02: As }} star-dials pointed to morn —

Line-01-032: [indent] {{1848-01 As //1848-02: And }} the star-dials hinted of morn —

Line-01-033: At the end of our path a liquescent

Line-01-034: [indent] And nebulous lustre was born,

Line-01-035: Out of which a miraculous crescent

Line-01-036: [indent] Arose with a duplicate horn —

Line-01-037: Astarte's bediamonded crescent

Line-01-038: [indent] Distinct with its duplicate horn.

 

Line-01-039: And I said — “She is warmer than Dian:

Line-01-040: [indent] She rolls through an ether of sighs —

Line-01-041: [indent] She revels in a region of sighs:

Line-01-042: She has seen that the tears are not dry on

Line-01-043: [indent] These cheeks, where the worm never dies,

Line-01-044: And has come past the stars of the Lion

Line-01-045: [indent] To point us the path to the skies —

Line-01-046: [indent] To the Lethean peace of the skies —

Line-01-047: Come up, in despite of the Lion,

Line-01-048: [indent] To shine on us with her bright eyes —

Line-01-049: Come up through the lair of the Lion,

Line-01-050: [indent] With Love in her luminous eyes.”

 

Line-01-051: But Psyche, uplifting her finger,

Line-01-052: [indent] Said — “Sadly this star I mistrust —

Line-01-053: [indent] Her pallor I strangely mistrust: —

Line-01-054: Oh, hasten! — oh, let us not linger!

Line-01-055: [indent] Oh, fly! — let us fly! — for we must.”

Line-01-056: In terror she spoke, letting sink her

Line-01-057: [indent] {{1848-01 Wings //1848-02: Plumes }} till they trailed in the dust —

Line-01-058: In agony sobbed, letting sink her

Line-01-059: [indent] {{1848-01 Plumes //1848-02: Wings }} till they trailed in the dust —

Line-01-060: [indent] Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.

 

Line-01-061: I replied — “This is nothing but dreaming:

Line-01-062: [indent] Let us on by this tremulous light!

Line-01-063: [indent] Let us bathe in this crystalline light!

Line-01-064: Its Sybilic splendor is beaming

Line-01-065: [indent] With Hope and in Beauty to-night: —

Line-01-066: See! — it flickers up the sky through the night!

Line-01-067: Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,

Line-01-068: [indent] And be sure it will lead us aright —

Line-01-069: We safely may trust to a gleaming

Line-01-070: [indent] That cannot but guide us aright,

Line-01-071: Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night.”

 

Line-01-072: Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,

Line-01-073: [indent] And tempted her out of her gloom —

Line-01-074: [indent] And conquered her scruples and gloom;

Line-01-075: And we passed to the end of the vista,

Line-01-076: [indent] {{1848-01 And were //1848-02: But we }} stopped by the door of a tomb —

Line-01-077: [indent] By the door of a legended tomb;

Line-01-078: And I said — “What is written, sweet sister,

Line-01-079: [indent] On the door of this legended tomb?”

Line-01-080: She replied — “Ulalume — Ulalume —

Line-01-081: 'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!”

 

Line-01-082: Then my heart it grew ashen and sober

Line-01-083: [indent] As the leaves that were crisped and sere —

Line-01-084: [indent] As the leaves that were withering and sere,

Line-01-085: And I cried — “It was surely October

Line-01-086: [indent] On this very night of last year

Line-01-087: [indent] That I journeyed — I journeyed down here —

Line-01-088: [indent] That I brought a dread burden down here —

Line-01-089: [indent] On this night of all nights in the year,

Line-01-090: [indent] Oh, what demon has tempted me here?

Line-01-091: Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber —

Line-01-092: [indent] This misty mid region of Weir —

Line-01-093: Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,

Line-01-094: [indent] {{1848-01 In the ghoul-haunted //1848-02: This ghoul haunted [[ghoul-haunted]] }} woodland of Weir.”