Ulalume Lyrics

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 October

Of 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 volcanic

As the scoriac rivers that roll—

As the lavas that restlessly roll

Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek

In the ultimate climes of the pole—

That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek

In 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)—

We remembered not the dank tarn of Auber

Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir

And now, as the night was senescent

And star-dials pointed to morn—

As the star-dials hinted of morn—

At the end of our path a liquescent

And nebulous lustre was born

Out of which a miraculous crescent

Arose with a duplicate horn—

Astarte's bediamonded crescent

Distinct 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 on

These cheeks, where the worm never dies

And has come past the stars of the Lion

To 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 Psyche, 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 her

Wings till they trailed in the dust—

In agony sobbed, letting sink her

Plumes 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 Sybilic splendor is beaming

With 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 gleaming

That 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 sober

As the leaves that were crisped and sere—

As the leaves that were withering and sere

And I cried—"It was surely October

On this very night of last year

That 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