There is a place none knows but I--
The Castle of Gathore!
Black murky pools about it lie.
And the trees are sick with its mystery;
And dead things are its floor.
Each tree with twisted root entwines
The bones of older trees.
Moon after moon above them shines--
Beyond the moon--the Zodiac signs!
Beyond _them_--the Immensities!
None would think that ever such pools could be!
Black morgues of leafy doom,
Where century after century
Old forests find their tomb.
Oh terrible steps of leaf-mould sod
Such as man never saw
That mount up--holy Mother of God!--
To the Castle of Gathore!
And I alone--yes only I--
Under Algol and Altair--
When a new-born moon was in the sky
Climbed up that mossy stair.
Old Cypress-roots of long decay
Troubled my noiseless tread;
Old Yews made midnight of the day
As they met above my head.
Out of the trees, tier above tier,
Mossed stone above mossed stone,
Buttress on buttress, it towered there,
A Nightmare image, a thing of fear,
Revealed to me alone!
My home! My home! To my heart I said--
My home! To my soul I cried--
From here have been wafted those airs of the dead
That have driven my true love from my bed,
And my true love from my side!
This is what divides me from him and her
And the blessed light of the sun;
Till the eyes of Algol and of Altair
Are my only benison!
This is what they guessed when in dumb surprise
They turned and let me pass--
This is what they saw behind my eyes
Like a phantom in a glass!
They saw those towers; they saw those trees;
And I am alone once more--
Alone with the Immensities
And the Castle of Gathore!