Astrophobos

In the Midnight heaven's burning

Through the ethereal deeps afar

Once I watch'd with restless yearning

An alluring aureate star;

Ev'ry eve aloft returning

Gleaming nigh the Arctic Car.

Mystic waves of beauty blended

With the gorgeous golden rays

Phantasies of bliss descended

In a myrrh'd Elysian haze.

In the lyre-born chords extended

Harmonies of Lydian lays.

And (thought I) lies scenes of pleasure,

Where the free and blessed dwell,

And each moment bears a treasure,

Freighted with the lotos-spell,

And there floats a liquid measure

From the lute of Israfel.

There (I told myself) were shining

Worlds of happiness unknown,

Peace and Innocence entwining

By the Crowned Virtue's throne;

Men of light, their thoughts refining

Purer, fairer, than my own.

Thus I mus'd when o'er the vision

Crept a red delirious change;

Hope dissolving to derision,

Beauty to distortion strange;

Hymnic chords in weird collision,

Spectral sights in endless range....

Crimson burn'd the star of madness

As behind the beams I peer'd;

All was woe that seem'd but gladness

Ere my gaze with Truth was sear'd;

Cacodaemons, mir'd with madness,

Through the fever'd flick'ring leer'd....

Now I know the fiendish fable

Then the golden glitter bore;

Now I shun the spangled sable

That I watch'd and lov'd before;

But the horror, set and stable,

Haunts my soul forevermore!