By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,

On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-

From a wild 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 tears 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 grey 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 traveller 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 an Eldorado!

But the traveller, travelling through it,
May not- dare not openly view it!
Never its mysteries are exposed

To the weak human eye unclosed;
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.