Ulalume: A Ballad<\/b><\/p>\n
The skies they were ashen and sober;
\nThe leaves they were crisp\u00e9d and sere —
\nThe leaves they were withering and sere;
\nIt was night in the lonesome October
\nOf my most immemorial year;
\nIt was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
\nIn the misty mid region of Weir —
\nIt was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
\nIn the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.<\/p>\n
Here once, through an alley Titanic,
\nOf cypress, I roamed with my Soul —
\nOf cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.
\nThere were days when my heart was volcanic
\nAs the scoriac rivers that roll —
\nAs the lavas that restlessly roll
\nTheir sulphurous currents down Yaanek
\nIn the ultimate climes of the pole —
\nThat groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek
\nIn the realms of the boreal pole.<\/p>\n
Our talk had been serious and sober,
\nBut our thoughts they were palsied and sere —
\nOur memories were treacherous and sere —
\nFor we knew not the month was October,
\nAnd we marked not the night of the year —
\n(Ah, night of all nights in the year!)
\nWe noted not the dim lake of Auber —
\n(Though once we had journeyed down here) —
\nWe remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,
\nNor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.<\/p>\n
And now, as the night was senescent
\nAnd star-dials pointed to morn —
\nAs the star-dials hinted of morn —
\nAt the end of our path a liquescent
\nAnd nebulous lustre was born,
\nOut of which a miraculous crescent
\nArose with a duplicate horn —
\nAstarte’s bediamonded crescent
\nDistinct with its duplicate horn.<\/p>\n
And I said — “She is warmer than Dian:
\nShe rolls through an ether of sighs —
\nShe has seen that the tears are not dry on
\nThese cheeks, where the worm never dies,
\nAnd has come past the stars of the Lion
\nTo point us the path to the skies —
\nTo the Lethean peace of the skies —
\nCome up, in despite of the Lion,
\nTo shine on us with her bright eyes —
\nCome up through the lair of the Lion
\nWith Love in her luminous eyes.”<\/p>\n
But Psyche, uplifting her finger,
\nSaid — “Sadly this star I mistrust —
\nHer pallor I strangely mistrust: —
\nOh, hasten! — oh, let us not linger!
\nOh, fly! — let us fly! — for we must.”
\nIn terror she spoke; letting sink her
\nWings till they trailed in the dust —
\nIn agony sobbed, letting sink her
\nPlumes till they trailed in the dust —
\nTill they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.<\/p>\n
I replied — “This is nothing but dreaming:
\nLet us on by this tremulous light!
\nLet us bathe in this crystalline light!
\nIts Sybillic splendor is beaming
\nWith Hope and in Beauty to-night: —
\nSee! — it flickers up the sky through the night!
\nAh, we safely may trust to its gleaming,
\nAnd be sure it will lead us aright —
\nWe safely may trust to a gleaming
\nThat cannot but guide us aright,
\nSince it flickers up to Heaven through the night.”<\/p>\n
Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,
\nAnd tempted her out of her gloom —
\nAnd conquered her scruples and gloom:
\nAnd we passed to the end of the vista,
\nAnd were stopped by the door of a tomb;
\nBy the door of a legended tomb: —
\nAnd I said — “What is written, sweet sister,
\nOn the door of this legended tomb?”
\nShe replied — “Ulalume — Ulalume —
\n‘Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!”<\/p>\n
Then my heart it grew ashen and sober
\nAs the leaves that were crisp\u00e9d and sere —
\nAs the leaves that were withering and sere,
\nAnd I cried — “It was surely October
\nOn this very night of last year
\nThat I journeyed — I journeyed down here —
\nThat I brought a dread burden down here —
\nOn this night of all nights in the year,
\nOh, what demon has tempted me here?
\nWell I know, now, this dim lake of Auber —
\nThis misty mid region of Weir —
\nWell I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,
\nIn the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.”<\/p>\n
Said we, then — the two, then — “Ah, can it
\nHave been that the woodlandish ghouls —
\nThe pitiful, the merciful ghouls —
\nTo bar up our way and to ban it
\nFrom the secret that lies in these wolds —
\nFrom the thing that lies hidden in these wolds —
\nHad drawn up the spectre of a planet
\nFrom the limbo of lunary souls —
\nThis sinfully scintillant planet
\nFrom the Hell of the planetary souls?”<\/p>\n
— Edgar Allan Poe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ulalume: A Ballad The skies they were ashen and sober; The leaves they were crisp\u00e9d and sere — The 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 Weir — It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whatever"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8301,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8299\/revisions\/8301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}