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THE skies they were ashen and sober;
The leaves they were crisped and sere,
The leaves they were withering and sere; [page 12:]
It was night in the lonesome October
[[5]]
[[n]]
Of my most immemorial year;
[[n]]
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
[[n]]
In the misty mid region of Weir;
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
[[n]]
In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.
10
Here once, through an alley Titanic
Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul —
[[n]]
Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.
These were days when my heart was volcanic
[[n]]
As the scoriac rivers that roll,
15
As the lavas that restlessly roll
Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek
In the ultimate climes of the pole, [page 13:]
That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek
[[n]]
In the realms of the boreal pole.
20
Our talk had been serious and sober,
But our thoughts they were palsied and sere,
Our memories were treacherous and sere,
For we knew not the month was October,
And we marked not the night of the year —
25
(Ah, night of all nights in the year!)
We noted not the dim lake of Auber
(Though once we had journeyed down here),
Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber
Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.
30
And now, as the night was senescent
And star-dials pointed to morn,
As the star-dials hinted of morn,
At the end of our path a liquescent
And nebulous lustre was born,
35
Out of which a miraculous crescent
Arose with a duplicate horn,
[[n]]
Astarte's bediamonded crescent
Distinct with its duplicate horn.
And I said — “She is warmer than Dian:
40
She rolls through an ether of sighs,
She revels in a region of sighs: [page 14:]
She has seen that the tears are not dry on
These cheeks, where the worm never dies,
[[n]]
And has come past the stars of the Lion
45
To point us the path to the skies,
[[n]]
To the Lethean peace of the skies:
Come up, in despite of the Lion,
To shine on us with her bright eyes:
Come up through the lair of the Lion,
50
With love in her luminous eyes.”
But Psyche, uplifting her finger,
Said — “Sadly this star I mistrust,
Her pallor I strangely mistrust:
Oh, hasten! — oh, let us not linger!
55
Oh, fly! — let us fly! — for we must.”
In terror she spoke, letting sink her
Wings until they trailed in the dust;
In agony sobbed, letting sink her
Plumes till they trailed in the dust,
60
Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.
I replied — “This is nothing but dreaming
Let us on by this tremulous light!
Let us bathe in this crystalline light!
[[n]]
Its Sybilic splendor is beaming
65
With hope and in beauty to-night:
See! — it flickers up the sky through the night! [page 15:]
Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,
And be sure it will lead us aright:
We safely may trust to a gleaming
70
That cannot but guide us aright,
Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night.”
Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,
And tempted her out of her gloom,
And conquered her scruples and gloom;
75
And we passed to the end of the vista,
But were stopped by the door of a tomb,
[[n]]
By the door of a legended tomb;
And I said — “What is written, sweet sister,
On the door of this legended tomb?”
80
She replied — “Ulalume — Ulalume —
'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!”
Then my heart it grew ashen and sober
As the leaves that were crisped and sere,
As the leaves that were withering and sere,
85
And I cried — “It was surely October
[[n]]
On this very night of last year
That I journeyed — I journeyed down here,
That I brought a dread burden down here:
On this night of all nights in the year,
90
Ah, what demon has tempted me here?
Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber,
This misty mid region of Weir:
Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,
This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.”
[The following note appears at the bottom of page 11, running to the bottom of page 12:]
* Ulalume first appeared in the American Whig Review for December, 1847. It may fairly be regarded as the crux of Poe's poetry. Many readers, who do not pretend to understand it, have been fascinated by its diction and rhythm and by the charm of its unchecked mysticism, and it has been even known to appeal to men who care little for any other poetry. But there have also been many readers who have not hesitated to pronounce [page 12:] it melodious nonsense. The truth seems to lie with the admirers of the poem. Its content of concrete meaning is quite small, — its tangible theme being, probably, a mere contre-temps that happens to a bereaved but possibly consolable husband, such as Poe was when he wrote it, — but perhaps never in the history of literature has so slight a theme been more amazingly evolved into a masterpiece of diction and rhythm that makes up for its lack of appeal to the understanding by the profundity of its appeal to the emotions. From the latter point of view, at least, Ulalume is a great poem in which its author's peculiar genius finds its most characteristic and complete expression.
[The following notes appear at the bottom of page 12:]
5. Poe means that the sorrows of the year have made it seem of practically unknown duration, placed it outside the domain of memory.
6, 7. These geographical names are all fictitious. The student will note their euphony and the weird effect produced by their unfamiliarity.
9. Ghoul-haunted — haunted by evil beings supposed by Oriental peoples to devour corpses.
12. Psyche is the Greek for soul.
14. Scoriac. Explained by the parallel expression “The lavas.” The word is rare.
[The following note appears at the bottom of page 13:]
19. Generally speaking boreal means northern, from Boreas, the north wind. But Poe's imagination usually tamed to the South Pole, so that it seems possible that he was following the French terminology, in which “boreal pole” is that pole of the magnetic needle which points to the South. The whole expression would then be equivalent to “Antarctic regions.”
[The following note appears at the bottom of page 13, running to the bottom of page 14:]
37. Astarte was the principal female divinity of the Phœnicians — goddess of the moon (as here) or of the heavens. Dian corresponds to her in Roman mythology, and Artemis in [page 14:] Greek. The “miraoulous crescent” is, perhaps, symbolical of some new love influence dawning on the poet's life.
[The following notes appear at the bottom of page 14:]
44. The Lion, the ancient constellation Leo. Poe's mythopoetic faculty is at its full height in this stanza.
46. Lethean, that is, which causes forgetfulness. Lethe was a river of Hades, the waters of which had the power of inducing in the drinker oblivion of his former life.
64. Sibyllic, mysterious, like a sibyl (see Classical Dictionary), The word is rare, “sibylline” being preferred.
[The following notes appear at the bottom of page 15:]
77. That is, the tomb has an inscription upon it that may be read; it is too recent to have legends told about it.
86. This verse and one or two others seem to introduce a prosaic element which may have given Bret Harte courage to write his remarkable parody of the poem.
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Notes:
None.
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[S:0 - WPT97, 1897 and 1898] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Editions - Ulalume (W. P. Trent, 1897 and 1898)