University of Virginia Library

I.

Accursed Hag! Hell-conceived, fury-born,
Twin sister of the fiend Despair, avaunt!
Hence with thy harpy talons, which have torn
Too long my vitals! Down to thy damnéd haunt
Of caverned horror and heart-eating woe!
Leave me, and plunge below
To that black pit, with all thy ghoulish crew
Of loathsome-visaged shapes;
Nightmares that come with pallid features blue
To rack me with soul-shattering escapes
From grisly phantoms. Vampires, flapping wings
Obscene about my bed;
Dread, formless, and abominable Things
That rise from gory pools, till o'er my head
The shuddering night is full of fiery eyes
And threatening fingers pointing scorn! Ye dead,
Haunt me not thus! Come not in fearful guise
Gibbering from bloody shrouds, or, long-engraved.
Rising to fear me with the abhorréd sight—
What coffin-planks have saved
From the worm's banquet. 'Twill not bear the light,
That mass of swollen corruption—green decay
Makes hideous every member! Get thee hence,
Foul incubus! Take thy loathed weight away
From off my breast! O sickening horror—! Whence
Comes any help? I wake, and it is day!
Thank heaven that night is done! But with the morn
Come fiendish voices whispering suicide—
Madness—damnation; with malignant scorn
My anguish they deride.

II.

Joy, for my chains are breaking! Get thee gone,
Fell sorceress! Hellward roll thy scorpion train,
Too long its hateful coils have round me lain;
But now thy reign is done.
Day breaks in gladness, and night comes to steep
Mine eyelids in her drowsiest honey-dew,
And folded by the downy wings of sleep,
Pillowed secure on her maternal breast,
In happy dreams and healing slumber deep
I sink to balmy rest.