by Edgar Allan
Poe
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),
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."
Said we
then, the two then,
"Ah, can it have been
That the woodlandish
ghouls,
The pitiful, the merciful ghouls,
To bar up our way and to
ban it
From the secret that lies in these wolds,
From the thing that
lies hidden in these wolds,
Have drawn up the spectre of a
planet
From the limbo of lunary souls,
This sinfully scintillant
planet
From the Hell of the planetary souls..."
adventures, (daughter of gloria harman clokey..) ..and she is the voice of minga (gumby's sister).. visit gumbyland for pix of her new book which she kindly signed for me! (it's not yet published..) here's a bit of her..
don't mind me..
i'm just here talking to myself where i feel safe..
i gotta confess here or somewhere that i have become the most reclusively agoraphobic/socialphobic ghost ever these days..
it's so cool to be talking to holly.. but then even via email i've realized i am so agoraphobic that i get all tense & panicky that i'll say the wrong thing somehow like an idiot and sound impolite? i dunno.. just fear of my own social ineptness/stupidity.. then last night i ventured out to buy a new laptop.. on this old one the screen falls shut or off of the back, the discdrive is broken, it heats up and fans come on over and over and the cord has caught fire not once but twice! it has been trying to die forever but i've been kicking it along..
anyway.. who else thinks that salespeople who shake your hand and do introductions should be taken out back of the store & shot?
and i don't want to explain my life story about what i do on my laptop.. i just want to fucking buy it. how hard does that need to be? i bailed out and left my husband & son to sort out the details and went off wandering through the cds/dvds and was approached by salespeople at every turn like a rat in a maze hitting tripwires! get me outtta here!!!!!! i panic and go into mindblank and just want to go home where i have good locks on my doors and curtains that close.. i am a nice person.. but i just cannot and must not ever interact with the humans. it makes me feel awful like a mental defective.. i'm incureable & i don't care. i'm more ocd than i used to be checking & counting.. but you know.. if it makes me feel safer, then i don't mind that either.
one fearful/avoidant ghost
Posted by: ghost | November 07, 2007 at 12:09 PM
oh man.
this is just not our day..
my husband left for work in a light rain just before light..
and then called me 15 minutes later as he had been in a major accident on the freeway.
he is ok, which is a miracle.. it was on the news and everything..
according to a very nice witness the other driver was driving erratically.. did a 3 lane change (no signal) behind my husband's truck into the fast lane beside him and then had to stop suddenly and was hit by the car he cut off in that lane right into a bigrig behind my husband, which hit them both.. and somehow he turned right into my husband's driver's side, literally ramming up under the truck lifting it up with sparks flying and sent him spinning across the freeway..
he is used to recovering himself on ice and automatically tried to turn into the spin or he would've actually flipped over.. thank god he had on his seatbelt..
after 3 or 4 spins he ended up way up the road over on the right and no one else hit him! the witness was sure he'd have broken legs or something.. was amazed he was ok..
we were trying to run the gas out of this truck/guzzler and switch to our old cavalier to save money so there was little gas in the tank or it could've blown..
the truck is totalled & undriveable and we had no collision ins. only personal & liability.. the person's license plate is our souvenir, it was embedded face down in the driver's side door!
we are screwed.. may end up in small claims court?
but i just thank god he's ok.
ghost
Posted by: | November 09, 2007 at 01:21 PM
i'm kinda worried..
getting my young'n all ready to go out on his wilderness survival overnighter with a big storm coming.. :/
he & his class will be up near mt hood and probably out of cel range..? we bought him a new mummy bag rated to 0 degrees.. and i'm making sure he's packed up with anything he might need..
yeah, i know he's 19.. but i'm still a mom. you don't screw around up here with mother nature, you know?
hope all goes ok..
ghost
Posted by: | November 13, 2007 at 09:07 AM
he's opting out..
we're in one of our famous windstorms here at the gorge, with rain & freezing night temps on the way.. none of us could sleep watching the deteriorating weather conditions.. instructor has changed trip locations last minute due to it, but it's too late.. i'm kinda glad.. dan's never even camped overnight before, he was in over his head.. i know him and he wouldn't sleep a wink all night sitting up in the rain under a blowing tarp looking for bears? the storm is coming in faster than they first thought..
i mean what kind of instructor takes students out to an 'undisclosed' location to possibly get lost orienteering in the rain well out of cel range?
seemed really imprudent to us.
maybe we're overprotective?
so sue us.. i don't care anymore what other people think.. i just trust less and less the more i interact with the 'outside' world of the humans..
we couldn't sleep worrying over it..
why he didn't just plan the trip for last week when weather was beautiful and they had nothing planned in class i just do not understand..
ghost
Posted by: ghost | November 14, 2007 at 10:20 AM