By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,Where an , named NIGHT,On a black throne reigns upright,I have reached these lands but newlyFrom an ultimate dim --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 grey woods, -- by the swampWhere the toad and the newt encamp, --By the dismal tarns and poolsWhere dwell the Ghouls, --By each spot the most unholy --In each nook most melancholy, --There the traveller meets Sheeted 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 !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 , named NIGHT,On a black throne reigns upright,I have wandered home but newlyFrom this ultimate dim .