Dream-Land
(Edgar Allan Poe-1844)
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule --
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE -- out of TIME.
Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,
With forms that no man can discover
For the dews that drip all over;
Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread
Their lone waters -- lone and dead, --
Their still waters -- still and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily.
By the lakes that thus outspread
Their lone waters, lone and dead, --
Their sad waters, sad and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily, --
By the mountains -- near the river
Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever, --
By the grey woods, -- by the swamp
Where the toad and the newt encamp, --
By the dismal tarns and pools
Where dwell the Ghouls, --
By each spot the most unholy --
In each nook most melancholy, --
There the traveller meets aghast
Sheeted Memories of the Past --
Shrouded forms that start and sigh
As they pass the wanderer by --
White-robed forms of friends long given,
In agony, to the Earth -- and Heaven.
For the heart whose woes are legion
'Tis a peaceful, soothing region --
For the spirit that walks in shadow
'Tis -- oh 'tis an Eldorado!
But the traveller, travelling through it,
May not -- dare not openly view it;
Never its mysteries are exposed
To the weak human eye unclosed;
So wills its King, who hath forbid
The uplifting of the fringed lid;
And thus the sad Soul that here passes
Beholds it but through darkened glasses.
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have wandered home but newly
From this ultimate dim Thule.
Explication:
Dream-Land is exploring on a land which is still abstract for human being's mind. Ardhi considers this poetry as Edgar Allan Poe's expression about remembering of death. It is showed on the repetition of first stanza to the last stanza. Route which is obscure and lonely means, everyone should face the death by themselves. Eidolon which describes by Poe as "NIGHT" relates to the soul of afterlife and Thule refers to such a place does exist similar with neverland.
The second and the third Stanza tell the "journey" of an Eidolon to find the Dream-Land. For a soul which is not a well prepared for the death, They will find a Dream-Land such a terror or horror place (aghast). But for those whom prepare their heart in trust about death, they could find the Dream-Land such an El-Dorado or a kind of golden Kingdom.
When the last stanza is the repetition of the first one, it reminds the reader again that death should be faced by everyone by temselves.
