Ulalume

10Here once, through an alley Titanic.

11 Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul —

12 Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.

13These were days when my heart was volcanic

14 As the scoriac rivers that roll —

15 As the lavas that restlessly roll

16Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek

17 In the ultimate climes of the pole —

18That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek

19 In the realms of the boreal pole.

20Our talk had been serious and sober,

21 But our thoughts they were palsied and sere —

22 Our memories were treacherous and sere —

23For we knew not the month was October,

24And we marked not the night of the year —

25 (Ah, night of all nights in the year!)

26We noted not the dim lake of Auber —

27 (Though once we had journeyed down here) —

28Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,

29 Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

30And now as the night was senescent

31 And star-dials pointed to morn —

32 As the sun-dials hinted of morn —

33At the end of our path a liquescent

34 And nebulous lustre was born,

35Out of which a miraculous crescent

36 Arose with a duplicate horn —

37Astarte's bediamonded crescent

38 Distinct with its duplicate horn.

39And I said — "She is warmer than Dian:

40 She rolls through an ether of sighs —

41 She revels in a region of sighs:

42She has seen that the tears are not dry on

43 These cheeks, where the worm never dies,

44And has come past the stars of the Lion

45 To point us the path to the skies —

46 To the Lethean peace of the skies —

47Come up, in despite of the Lion,

48 To shine on us with her bright eyes —

49Come up through the lair of the Lion,

50 With love in her luminous eyes."

51But Psyche, uplifting her finger,

52 Said — "Sadly this star I mistrust —

53 Her pallor I strangely mistrust: —

54Oh, hasten! — oh, let us not linger!

55 Oh, fly! — let us fly! — for we must."

56In terror she spoke, letting sink her

57 Wings till they trailed in the dust —

58In agony sobbed, letting sink her

59 Plumes till they trailed in the dust —

60 Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.

61I replied — "This is nothing but dreaming:

62 Let us on by this tremulous light!

63 Let us bathe in this crystalline light!

64Its Sibyllic splendor is beaming

65 With Hope and in Beauty to-night: —

66 See! — it flickers up the sky through the night!

67Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,

68 And be sure it will lead us aright —

69We safely may trust to a gleaming

70 That cannot but guide us aright,

71 Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night."

72Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,

73 And tempted her out of her gloom —

74 And conquered her scruples and gloom;

75And we passed to the end of a vista,

76 But were stopped by the door of a tomb —

77 By the door of a legended tomb;

78And I said — "What is written, sweet sister,

79 On the door of this legended tomb?"

80 She replied — "Ulalume — Ulalume —

81 'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!"

82Then my heart it grew ashen and sober

83 As the leaves that were crisped and sere —

84 As the leaves that were withering and sere;

85And I cried — "It was surely October

86 On _this_ very night of last year

87 That I journeyed — I journeyed down here —

88 That I brought a dread burden down here!

89 On this night of all nights in the year,

90 Ah, what demon has tempted me here?

91Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber —

92 This misty mid region of Weir —

93Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber, —

94 This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir."