Ulalume: a Balad

Ulalume: A ballad

The skies they were ashen and sober;The leaves they were crisped and sere  —The leaves they were withering and sere;It was night in the lonesome OctoberOf my most immemorial year;It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,In the misty mid region of Weir —It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

Here once, through an alley Titanic,Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul —Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.These were days when my heart was volcanicAs the scoriac rivers that roll —As the lavas that restlessly rollTheir sulphurous currents down YaanekIn the ultimate climes of the pole —That groan as they roll down Mount YaanekIn the realms of the boreal pole.

Our talk had been serious and sober,But our thoughts they were palsied and sere —Our memories were treacherous and sere —For we knew not the month was October,And we marked not the night of the year —(Ah, night of all nights in the year!)We noted not the dim lake of Auber —(Though once we had journeyed down here),Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber —Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

And now, as the night was senescent,And the star-dials pointed to morn —As the star-dials hinted of morn —At the end of our path a liquescentAnd nebulous lustre was born,Out of which a miraculous crescentArose with a duplicate horn —Astarte’s bediamonded crescentDistinct with its duplicate horn.

And I said — “She is warmer than Dian:She rolls through an ether of sighs —She revels in a region of sighs:She has seen that the tears are not dry onThese cheeks, where the worm never dies,And has come past the stars of the LionTo point us the path to the skies —To the Lethean peace of the skies —Come up, in despite of the Lion,To shine on us with her bright eyes —Come up through the lair of the Lion,With love in her luminous eyes.”

But, uplifting her finger,Said — “Sadly this star I mistrust —Her pallor I strangely mistrust:Oh, hasten! — oh, let us not linger!Oh, fly! — let us fly! — for we must.”In terror she spoke, letting sink herWings until they trailed in the dust-In agony sobbed, letting sink herPlumes till they trailed in the dust —Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.

I replied — “This is nothing but dreaming:Let us on by this tremulous light!Let us bathe in this crystalline light!Its Sybillic splendor is beamingWith Hope and in Beauty to-night:See! — it flickers up the sky through the night!Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,And be sure it will lead us aright —We safely may trust to a gleamingThat cannot but guide us aright,Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night.”

Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,And tempted her out of her gloom —And conquered her scruples and gloom:And we passed to the end of the vista,But were stopped by the door of a tomb —By the door of a legended tomb;And I said — “What is written, sweet sister,On the door of this legended tomb?”She replied — “Ulalume — Ulalume-‘Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!”

Then my heart it grew ashen and soberAs the leaves that were crisped and sere —As the leaves that were withering and sere —And I cried — “It was surely OctoberOn this very night of last yearThat I journeyed — I journeyed down here —That I brought a dread burden down here —On this night of all nights in the year,Ah, what demon has tempted me here?Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber —This misty mid region of Weir —Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.”

Said we, then — the two, then — “Ah, can itHave been that the woodlandish ghouls —The pitiful, the merciful ghouls —To bar up our way and to ban itFrom the secret that lies in these wolds —From the thing that lies hidden in these wolds —Had drawn up the spectre of a planetFrom the limbo of lunary souls —This sinfully scintillant planetFrom the Hell of the planetary souls”

1847

l. 8, tarn: a small mountain lake.

l. 14, scoriac rivers: rivers of lava.

l. 19, boreal: referring to the north or northern regions, therefore, the North Pole.

l. 37, Astarte: the Phoenician goodes of fertility, who is often identified with the moon. Here the two horns are the points of the new moon.

l. 39, Dian: Diana, Roman goddess of the moon.

l. 44, the Lion: the constellation Leo.

l. 46, Lethean: refers to the river Lethe, in Hades, whose waters brought forgetfulness.

l. 51, Psyche: Greek for the soul, often pictured as a butterfly.

l. 64, Sybillic: refers to the Sybils, prophetesses in Greek myth (now spelled Sibyllic).

l. 103, scintillant: shiny or sparkling.