| The skies they were ashen and sober; |
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| The leaves they were crispèd and sere, |
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| The leaves they were withering and sere; |
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| It was night in the lonesome October |
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| Of my most immemorial year; |
5 |
| It was hard by the dim lake of Auber, |
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| In the misty mid region of Weir: |
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| It was down by the dank tarn of Auber, |
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| In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir. |
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| |
| Here once, through an alley Titanic |
10 |
| Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul |
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| Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul. |
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| These were days when my heart was volcanic |
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| As the scoriac rivers that roll, |
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| As the lavas that restlessly roll |
15 |
| Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek |
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| In the ultimate climes of the pole, |
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| That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek |
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| In the realms of the boreal pole. |
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| |
| Our talk had been serious and sober, |
20 |
| But our thoughts they were palsied and sere, |
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| Our memories were treacherous and sere, |
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| For we knew not the month was October, |
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| And we marked not the night of the year, |
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| (Ah, night of all nights in the year!) |
25 |
| We noted not the dim lake of Auber |
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| (Though once we had journeyed down here), |
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| Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber |
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| Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir. |
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| |
| And now, as the night was senescent |
30 |
| And star-dials pointed to morn, |
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| As the star-dials hinted of morn, |
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| At the end of our path a liquescent |
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| And nebulous lustre was born, |
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| Out of which a miraculous crescent |
35 |
| Arose with a duplicate horn, |
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| Astarte's bediamonded crescent |
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| Distinct with its duplicate horn. |
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| |
| And I said"She is warmer than Dian: |
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| She rolls through an ether of sighs, |
40 |
| She revels in a region of sighs: |
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| She has seen that the tears are not dry on |
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| These cheeks, where the worm never dies, |
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| And has come past the stars of the Lion |
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| To point us the path to the skies, |
45 |
| To the Lethean peace of the skies: |
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| Come up, in despite of the Lion, |
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| To shine on us with her bright eyes: |
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| Come up through the lair of the Lion, |
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| With love in her luminous eyes." |
50 |
| |
| But Psyche, uplifting her finger, |
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| Said"Sadly this star I mistrust, |
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| Her pallor I strangely mistrust: |
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| Oh, hasten!oh, let us not linger! |
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| Oh, fly!let us fly! for we must." |
55 |
| In terror she spoke, letting sink her |
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| Wings until they trailed in the dust, |
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| In agony sobbed, letting sink her |
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| Plumes till they trailed in the dust, |
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| Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust. |
60 |
| |
| I replied"This is nothing but dreaming: |
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| Let us on by this tremulous light! |
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| Let us bathe in this crystalline light! |
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| Its sibyllic splendor is beaming |
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| With hope and in beauty to-night: |
65 |
| See, it flickers up the sky through the night! |
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| Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming, |
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| And be sure it will lead us aright: |
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| We safely may trust to a gleaming |
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| That cannot but guide us aright, |
70 |
| Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night." |
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| |
| Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her, |
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| And tempted her out of her gloom, |
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| And conquered her scruples and gloom; |
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| And we passed to the end of the vista, |
75 |
| But were stopped by the door of a tomb, |
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| By the door of a legended tomb; |
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| And I said"What is written, sweet sister, |
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| On the door of this legended tomb?" |
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| She replied"UlalumeUlalume |
80 |
| 'T is the vault of thy lost Ulalume!" |
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| |
| Then my heart it grew ashen and sober |
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| As the leaves that were crispèd and sere, |
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| As the leaves that were withering and sere, |
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| And I cried"It was surely October |
85 |
| On this very night of last year |
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| That I journeyedI journeyed down here, |
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| That I brought a dread burden down here: |
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| On this night of all nights in the year, |
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| Ah, what demon has tempted me here? |
90 |
| Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber, |
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| This misty mid region of Weir: |
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| Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber, |
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| This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir." |