Halloween Countdown 2021: Day 1

 

One more night and the trick or treaters will be among us!

And here's another poem from the master of suspense and mystery, Edgar Allan Poe.

Ulalume

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: 

Ah, hasten! —ah, let us not linger! 

Ah, 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 splendour is beaming 

With Hope and in Beauty tonight!— 

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 hath 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."


Our creepy music for tonight comes from the pen of one of Hollywood's most prolific composers for film, Bernard Herrmann. 

Sleep well tonight.