Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DREAMLAND, by EDGAR ALLAN POE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DREAMLAND, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: By a route obscure and lonely
Last Line: From this ultimate dim thule.
Variant Title(s): Dream-land


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 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 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 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 an Eldorado!
But the traveler, traveling 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.





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