Dream-Land

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 
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 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 
O! it is 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.