Dreamland
Lines:56Movement:Romanticism
By a route obscure and lonely,Haunted by ill angels only,Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,On a black throne reigns upright,I have reached these lands but newlyFrom an ultimate dim Thule--From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime, Out of SPACE--out of TIME. Bottomless vales and boundless floods,And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,With forms that no man can discoverFor the dews that drip all over;Mountains toppling evermoreInto seas without a shore;Seas that restlessly aspire,Surging, unto skies of fire;Lakes that endlessly outspreadTheir lone waters--lone and dead,Their still waters--still and chillyWith the snows of the lolling lily. By the lakes that thus outspreadTheir lone waters, lone and dead,--Their sad waters, sad and chillyWith the snows of the lolling lily,-- By the mountains--near the riverMurmuring lowly, murmuring ever,--By the gray woods,--by the swampWhere the toad and the newt encamp,--By the dismal tarns and pools Where dwell the Ghouls,--By each spot the most unholy--In each nook most melancholy,-- There the traveller meets aghastSheeted Memories of the past--Shrouded forms that start and sighAs they pass the wanderer by--White-robed forms of friends long given,In agony, to the Earth--and Heaven. For the heart whose woes are legion'Tis a peaceful, soothing region--For the spirit that walks in shadow'Tis--oh, 'tis an Eldorado!But the traveller, travelling through it,May not--dare not openly view it;Never its mysteries are exposedTo the weak human eye unclosed;So wills its King, who hath forbidThe uplifting of the fringed lid;And thus the sad Soul that here passesBeholds it but through darkened glasses. By a route obscure and lonely,Haunted by ill angels only. Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,On a black throne reigns upright,I have wandered home but newlyFrom this ultimate dim Thule.