Ulalume Poem by Edgar Allan Poe

Ulalume

Rating: 4.1


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 journey down here),
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 until 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."

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
* Sunprincess * 03 January 2016

.........nicely penned and so poetic, a frightening tale ★

9 7 Reply
Spock The Vegan 12 November 2015

Strange poem - even for Poe. I'm glad I didn't fall in love with my own soul. Maybe this is one he wrote in jail when drunk.

3 10 Reply
lol 16 June 2021

this is very smelly

0 0 Reply
hiya123 26 March 2018

itsa lovely poem. so sad and bittersweet

2 3 Reply
Errol Robinson 28 February 2018

follow me on instagram @eerrrrooll add me on snachat @erroldatboss subscribe to me @SMEEGAH

1 3 Reply
Malcolm MacDonald 24 January 2018

From reading this poem I gathered the author is in search of his beloved who has passed on and residing in a crypt or vault in a haunted place where the spirits of the dead reside So it's a place that the living should not venture but he's guided by the nebulous light of a crescent moon and a star in the heart of constellation Leo obviously it is night and he feels lost in the dark but a spirit Gide app

2 1 Reply
Jacob Ramirez 22 January 2018

Are all of his poems depressing?

3 2 Reply
Raimi Stranger 12 June 2020

" Life is but a dream within a dream, " , , if you could but understand Love is the revealing of our now-Quantum-Physically-proven Creator, this he understood befor Physics proved we are virtual reality in many virtual reality uiverses, , ,

0 0
Kanyon Harris 05 April 2018

Yes he had something wrong with him that made them all this way.

0 0
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