A Dream Of The Abyss

I seemed at the sheer end: Albeit mine eyes, in mystery and night Shrouded as with the close deep caul of death, Or as if underneath Lethean lentors drowned, Saw never lamp nor star nor dead star's wraith of light Yet seemed I at the world's sheer end; And fearfully and slowly I drew breath From silent gulfs of all uncertainty and dread, Precipitate to nadir from around; Nor trusted I on any side to tread One pace, lest I should overstep the brink, And infinitely and forever sink Past eye-shot of the Cyclopean sun When from the bulwark of the world, adown oblivion, He on the morrow should stare after me. Swift from infinity, The enormous Fear that lives between the stars Clutched with the cold great darkness at my heart; Then from the gulf arose a whispering, And rustle as of silence on the wing To stay and stand Anear at my right hand: What powers abysmal, born of the blind air, What nameless demons of the nether deep That 'scape the sun and from the moonlight live apart, Came and conspired against me there, I heard not, ere the whispering Ceased, and a heavier darkness seemed to spring Upon me, and I felt the silence leap And clasp me closer, and the sweep Of ah the abyss reach up and drag Body and feet from the crumbling uttermost crag To the emptiness unknown; Nor knew I, plunging through those nadir firmaments, If Azrael or Abbadon bore me thence, Or if I fell alone.