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 endlеssly outspread
Their lone watеrs - 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