The Dream of Eugene Aram 2681 THE DREAM OF EUGENE ARAM 'TWAS in the prime of summer time, An evening calm and cool, And four-and-twenty happy boys Came bounding out of school: There were some that ran and some that leaped, Like troutlets in a pool. Away they sped with gamesome minds, And souls untouched by sin; To a level mead they came, and there Like sportive deer they coursed about, Turning to mirth all things of earth, As only boyhood can; But the Usher sat remote from all, His hat was off, his vest apart, To catch heaven's blessed breeze; For a burning thought was in his brow, And his bosom ill at ease: So he leaned his head on his hands, and read The book between his knees. Leaf after leaf, he turned it o'er, Nor ever glanced aside, For the peace of his soul he read that book In the golden eventide: Much study had made him very lean, And pale, and leaden-eyed. At last he shut the ponderous tome, With a fast and fervent grasp し i He strained the dusky covers close, "Oh, God! could I so close my mind, And clasp it with a clasp!" Then leaping on his feet upright, Now up the mead, then down the mead, That pored upon a book. "My gentle lad, what is't you read Romance or fairy fable? Or is it some historic page, Of kings and crowns unstable?" The young boy gave an upward glance,"It is "The Death of Abel."" The Usher took six hasty strides, And down he sat beside the lad, And, long since then, of bloody men, And hid in sudden graves; Of horrid stabs, in groves forlorn, And how the sprites of injured men. And unknown facts of guilty acts Are seen in dreams from God! The Dream of Eugene Aram He told how murderers walk the earth With crimson clouds before their eyes, For blood has left upon their souls "And well," quoth he, "I know for truth, Their pangs must be extreme,— Woe, woe, unutterable woe, Who spill life's sacred stream! For why? Methought, last night, I wrought "One that had never done me wrong, A feeble man and old: I led him to a lonely field; The moon shone clear and cold: Now here, said I, this man shall die, "Two sudden blows with a ragged stick, One hurried gash with a hasty knife,- There was nothing lying at my foot "Nothing but lifeless flesh and bone, That could not do me ill; And yet I feared him all the more, For lying there so still: There was a manhood in his look, That murder could not kill. "And, lo! the universal air. And called upon his name! 2683 4 "Oh, God! it made me quake to see Such sense within the slain! "My head was like an ardent coal, My wretched, wretched soul, I knew, A dozen times I groaned: the dead "And now, from forth the frowning sky From the Heaven's topmost height, I heard a voice-that awful voice "I took the dreary body up, "Down went the corse with a hollow plunge And vanished in the pool; Anon I cleansed my bloody hands, And washed my forehead cool, And sat among the urchins young, That evening in the school. "Oh, Heaven! to think of their white souls And mine so black and grim! I could not share in childish prayer Like a Devil of the Pit I seemed, 'Mid holy Cherubim! "And peace went with them, one and all, And each calm pillow spread: The Dream of Eugene Aram 2685 27 And drew my midnight curtains round, But Guilt was my grim Chamberlain With fingers bloody red! "All night I lay in agony, In anguish dark and deep, My fevered eyes I dared not close, For Sin had rendered unto her "All night I lay in agony, From weary chime to chime, With one besetting horrid hint, That racked me all the time; A mighty yearning, like the first Fierce impulse unto crime; "One stern tyrannic thought, that made All other thoughts its slave: Stronger and stronger every pulse Did that temptation crave, Still urging me to go and see The Dead Man in his grave! "Heavily I rose up, as soon And I saw the Dead in the river bed, "Merrily rose the lark, and shook For I was stooping once again Under the horrid thing. |