111 lines
4.4 KiB
Plaintext
111 lines
4.4 KiB
Plaintext
1847
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ULALAME
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by Edgar Allan Poe
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ULALUME
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The skies they were ashen and sober;
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The leaves they were crisped 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;
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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,
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Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul-
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Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.
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There 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
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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,
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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!)
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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,
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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
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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-
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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-
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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."
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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."
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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.
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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 Sybilic splendor is beaming
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With Hope and in Beauty to-night:-
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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,
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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,
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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- "Ulalume- Ulalume-
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'Tis 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 crisped 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
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On this very night of last year
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That I journeyed- I 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?
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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."
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-THE END-
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