Around its walls the forests of the west
  Gloom, as about some mystery's final pale
  Might lie its multifold exterior veil.
Sculptured with signs and meanings unconfessed,
Its lordly fanes and palaces attest
  A past before whose wall of darkness fail
  Reason and fancy, finding not the tale
Erased by time from history's palimpest.

Within this place, that from the gloom of Eld
  Still meets the light, a people came and went
    Like whirls of dust between its columns
      blown—
An alien race, whose record, shadow-held,
  Is sealed with those of others long forespent
    That died in sunless planets lost and lone.