DREAM-LAND.
————
BY EDGAR A. POE.
————

[column 1:]


    B Y a route obscure and lonely,
    Haunted by ill angels only,
    Where an Eidolon, named N IGHT ,
    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 S PACE — out of T IME .

    Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
    And chasms, and caves, and Titian woods,
    With forms that no man can discover
    For the dews 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 a route obscure and lonely,
    Haunted by ill angels only,
    Where an Eidolon, named N IGHT ,
    On a black throne reigns upright,
    I have reached my home but newly
    From this ultimate dim Thule.

    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 mountain — near the river
    Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever, —
    By the gray woods, — by the swamp
    Where the toad and the newt encamp, — [column 2:]
    By the dismal tarns and pools
            Where dwell the Ghouls, —
    By each spot the most unholy —
    In each nook most melancholy, —
    There the traveler 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 worms, and Heaven.

By a route obscure and lonely,
    Haunted by ill angels only,
    Where an Eidolon, named N IGHT ,
    On a black throne reigns upright,
    I have journeyed home but newly
    From this ultimate dim Thule.

    For the heart whose woes are legion
    'T is a peaceful, soothing region —
    For the spirit that walks in shadow
    'T is — oh 't is an Eldorado!
    But the traveler, traveling through it,
    May not — dare not openly view it;
    Never its mysteries are exposed
    To the weak human eye unclosed;
    So wills the 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 N IGHT ,
    On a black throne reigns upright,
    I have wandered home but newly
    From this ultimate dim Thule.

 

 

Junho de 1844.