Strange dreams by night and troubled thoughts by day Disturb the prince and banish quiet sleep. He dreamed that darkness, visible and dense, Shrouded the heavens and brooded o'er the earth, Whose rayless, formless, vacant nothingness Curdled his blood and made his eyeballs ache; When suddenly from out this empty void A cloud, shining with golden light, was borne By gentle winds, loaded with sweet perfumes, Sweeter than spring-time on this earth can yield. The cloud passed just above him, and he saw Myriads of cherub faces looking down, Sweet as Rahula, freed from earthly stain; Such faces mortal brush could never paint-- Enraptured Raphael ne'er such faces saw. But still the outer darkness hovered near, And ever and anon a bony hand Darts out to snatch some cherub face away. Then dreamed he saw a broad and pleasant land, With cities, gardens, groves and fruitful fields, Where bee-fed flowers half hide the ripening fruits. And spicy breezes stir the trembling leaves, And many birds make sweetest melody, But bordered by a valley black as night, That ever vomits from its sunless depths Great whirling clouds of suffocating smoke, Blacker than hide the burning Aetna's head, Blacker than over Lake Avernus hung; No bird could fly above its fatal fumes; Eagles, on tireless pinions upward borne, In widening circles rising toward the sun, Venturing too near its exhalations, fall, As sinks the plummet in the silent sea; And lions, springing on their antlered prey, Drop still and lifeless on its deadly brink; Only the jackal's dismal howl is heard To break its stillness and eternal sleep. He was borne forward to the very verge Of this dark valley, by some power unseen. A wind that pierced his marrow parts the clouds, And far within, below he saw a sight That stood his hair on end, beaded his brow With icy drops, and made his blood run cold; He saw a lofty throne, blacker than jet, But shining with a strange and baleful light That made him shade his blinded, dazzled eyes, And seated on that throne a ghastly form That seemed a giant human skeleton, But yet in motion terrible and quick As lightning, killing ere the thunders roll; His fleshless skull had on a seeming crown, While from his sunken sockets glared his eyes Like coals of fire or eyes of basilisk, And from his bony hand each instant flew Unerring darts that flew to pierce and kill, Piercing the infant in its mother's arms, The mother when she feels her first-born's breath, Piercing the father in his happy home, Piercing the lover tasting love's first kiss, Piercing the vanquished when his banners fall, Piercing the victor 'mid triumphant shouts, Piercing the mighty monarch on his throne; While from a towering cypress growing near Every disease to which frail flesh is heir Like ravening vultures watch each arrow's flight, And quick as thought glide off on raven's wings