ULALUME. I. THE skies they were ashen and sober; The leaves they were crisped and sereThe leaves they were withering and sere; It was night in the lonesome October Of my most immemorial year; It was hard by the dim lake of Auber, In the misty mid region of WeirIt was down by the dank tarn of Auber, In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir. II. Here once, through an alley Titanic, Of cypress, I roamed with my SoulOf cypress, with Psyche, my Soul. These were days when my heart was volcanic As the scoriac rivers that rollAs the lavas that restlessly roll Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek In the ultimate climes of the poleThat groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek In the realms of the boreal pole. Our talk had been serious and sober, But our thoughts they were palsied and sere― Our memories were treacherous and sere For we knew not the month was October, And we marked not the night of the year(Ah, night of all nights in the year!) We noted not the dim lake of Auber (Though once we had journeyed down here)Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber, Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir. IV. And now, as the night was senescent And I said 66 V. She is warmer than Dian: She rolls through an ether of sighs- She has seen that the tears are not dry on These cheeks, where the worm never dies, And has come past the stars of the Lion To point us the path to the skiesTo the Lethean peace of the skiesCome up, in despite of the Lion, To shine on us with her bright eyesCome up through the lair of the Lion, With love in her luminous eyes." VI. But Psyche, uplifting her finger, 66 Said " Sadly this star I mistrustHer pallor I strangely mistrust :Oh, haston!-oh, let us not linger! Oh, fly !—let us fly !--for we must." In terror she spoke, letting sink her Wings until they trailed in the dust In agony sobbed, letting sink her Plumes till they trailed in the dust- VII. I replied—“This is nothing but dreaming: Let us on by this tremulous light! Let us bathe in this crystalline light! Its Sybillic splendour is beaming With Hope and in Beauty to-night :— See it flickers up the sky through the night! Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming, And be sure it will lead us aright— We safely may trust to a gleaming That cannot but guide us aright, Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night." VIII. Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her, But were stopped by the door of a tomb— And I said "What is written, sweet sister, On the door of this legended tomb?" Then IX. grew ashen and sober my As the leaves that were withering and sere, And I cried" It was surely October That I journeyed-I journeyed down here— Ah, what demon has tempted me here? Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber, This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir." |