through the ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber past the wan-mooned abysses of night as I struggle and shriek ere the daybreak being driven to madness with fright
I have seen the dark universe yawning where the black planets roll without aim where they roll in their horror unheeded without knowledge or lustre or name
great was the sin of my spirit and great is the reach of it's doom not the pity of heaven can cheer it nor can respite be found in the tomb
I have haunted the tombs of the ages i have flown on the pinions of fear where the smoke belching erebus rages where the jokulls loom snow-clad and drear
i was old when the pharaohs first mounted the jewel-decked throne by the nile i was old in those epochs uncounted when I and only I was vile