I wandered down Sleep's vast and sunless vale,
Where silence and Cimmerian darkness lay
That never moon nor stars disturb, nor Day
With sword of golden light. Beside the trail
I groping followed, through that secret dale,
A deep and voiceless river stole its way -
Dark Lethe's stream, owning whose opiate sway
I onward went without a doubt or fail.

Till, lo! the atramental veil of night
That, stifling, hung about, behind, before,
Was sudden parted by some unseen hand,
And on my vision leapt a marvelous sight -
A green and joyous plain, with fair skies o'er,
The Dream-god's sunlight-drenched, enchanted land.