Dreamland

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 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

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

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, -

By the mountains - near the river

Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever, -

By the grey 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,

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;

So wills its King, who hath forbid

The uplifting of the fringed 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.