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 newly

 

From 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 discover

[[v]]

For the tears that drip all over;

Mountains toppling evermore

Into seas without a shore;

Seas that restlessly aspire,

Surging, unto skies of fire;

Lakes that endlessly outspread

Their lone waters — lone and dead, —

Their still waters — still and chilly

[[v]]

With the snows of the lolling lily.

 

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, [page 20:]

[[v]]

By the mountains — near the river

Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever;

By the gray woods, — by the swamp

Where 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, aghast,

Sheeted Memories of the Past:

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

’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 exposed

To the weak human eye unclosed;

[[v]]

So wills its King, who hath forbid

The uplifting of the fringéd lid;

And thus the sad Soul that here passes

Beholds 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 newly

From this ultimate dim Thule.