Nick Pitt,

You said ""ere history penetrates the haze"; those "eres" should be "e'ers" -- a contraction of "ever'.

I think not. I don't have a published, printed version of the poem in front of me, but 'ere as a contraction of "before" makes more sense than e're as a contraction of "ever". Before history penetrates the haze. Before human eyes were there to gaze.

I, too, always thought it was "a rebus". But rebus is a puzzle made of pictures. I just don't see how a picture puzzle fits in to the store. Erebus, however, is the son of the ancient god Chaos.