THE MOTHER’S TRAGEDY 27
Remembrance that there was a God. I say
I see the whole bright universe a tomb,
With creeping spectres moving in the mist,
Some suffocating poison that was air.
O Pheedra! lend me of thy wickedness,
Lest I go mad to contemplate myself !
I choke—I grope—TI fall!
What name is this
That strikes my spirit as a broken bell
Struck by some devilish hammer? In my brain
Reverberates some word impossible.
O I am broken on the wheel of death ;
My bones are ground in some infernal mill ;
My blood is as the venom of a snake,
Striking each vessel with unwonted pangs,
Killing all good within me. I am—Ah!
MADELINE.
Dear friend, dear friend, seek comfort in my arms!
Look to Our Lady of the Seven Stars!
CORA.
Can you not see? I am cut off from God!
Loathsome bull-men in their corruption linked
Whisper lewd fancies in my ear. Great fish,
Monstrous and flat, with vile malignant eyes,
And crawling beetles of gigantic strength,
Crushed, mangled, moving, are about me. Go!
Go! do not touch the carcase of myself
That is abased, defiled, abominable.