Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems by the late Thomas Haynes Bayly; Edited by his Widow. With A Memoir of the Author. In Two Volumes |
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DEADLY NIGHTSHADE. |
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 | Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems |  |
52
DEADLY NIGHTSHADE.
I
I lay within a strange abode, and on a curtain'd bed,The lamp upon the tapestry a ghastly glimmer shed;
I could not doze, I could not sleep, I heard the rats and mice;
My head was like a furnace, and my hands and feet like ice.
I thought of all my evil deeds, and wished them all undone,
I longed to hear the merry lark, and see the rising sun;
I heard the hooting of the owl, the ticking of the clock,
And the door did shake, while something seem'd to fidget with the lock!
II
I wanted much to ring the bell to summon man or maid,I did not thrust a finger forth because I was afraid;
I longed to call out lustily, but not a word I said,
I grasped the blankets and the sheets, and held them o'er my head.
I heard a most alarming noise, I never heard the like,
Just as the turret-clock struck twelve! a horrid hour to strike!
And down my chimney screeching came a most malignant fiend—
I sat up trembling in my bed—good gracious, how he grinn'd!
III
Upon the marble mantelpiece there flared a globe of flame!And in it danced distorted forms, too horrible to name!
And on the hearth the fiend still sat—I fainted with affright!
But rose next morn to trace the cause the moment there was light.
The fiend was but a tabby cat; the globe of flame I saw,
A shade of paper for the lamp—such as my sisters draw!
'Twas traced with ghosts and skeletons from charnel-houses damp!
It isn't nice to have a Deadly Nightshade for one's lamp!
| Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems | |