By a route obscure and lonely,

Haunted by ill angels only,

Where an Eidolon, name 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 gray 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 traveler 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

'Tis--oh, 'tis and Eldorado!

But the traveler, travelling through it,

May not--dare not openly view it.

Never its mysteries are exposed;

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.