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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.'

VIII

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 a 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 ! '

IX

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.'
E. A. POE.

KUBLA KHAN

A VISION IN A DREAM

IN Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail;
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reach'd the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! A damsel with a dulcimer

In & vision once I saw :

It was an Abyssinian maid,

And on her dulcimer she played,

[graphic]

Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight 'twould win me
That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

L'ALLEGRO

S. T. COLERIDGE

HENCE, loathed Melancholy,

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born

In Stygian cave forlorn

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy! Find out some uncouth cell

Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings

And the night-raven sings;

There under ebon shades, and low-brow'd rocks

As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

But come, thou Goddess fair and free,

In heaven yclept Euphrosyne,

And by men, heart-easing Mirth,
Whom lovely Venus at a birth
With two sister Graces more
To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore:
Or whether (as some sager sing)
The frolic wind that breathes the spring

[merged small][graphic][subsumed]

Fill'd her with thee, a daughter fair,
So buxom, blithe, and debonair.

Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
Jest, and youthful jollity,

L

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