Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE FEAR OF MADNESS; FRAGMENT by LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON

First Line: THERE IS SOMETHING WHICH I DREAD
Last Line: (FINAL POEM)
Subject(s): FEAR; GRIEF; INSANITY; SICKNESS; SORROW; SADNESS; MADNESS; MENTAL ILLNESS; ILLNESS;

(WRITTEN WHILE CONFINED TO HER BED DURING HER LAST ILLNESS)
There is a something which I dread,
It is a dark, a fearful thing;
It steals along with withering tread,
Or sweeps on wild destruction's wing.
That thought comes o'er me in the hour
Of grief, of sickness, or of sadness;
'T is not the dread of death -- 't is more,
It is the dread of madness.
Oh! may these throbbing pulses pause,
Forgetful of their feverish course;
May this hot brain, which burning, glows
With all a fiery whirlpool's force,
Be cold, and motionless, and still,
A tenant of its lowly bed,
But let not dark delirium steal --

(Final poem)



Home: PoetryExplorer.net