I QUEER! there was no premonitory twitch, No twangling of my nerves, to advertise All you would mean to me: contrariwise, Full-blown your passion seized me: passion which Made our relation so supremely rich In yearning, wild remorses, and surprise. And yet I uttered hardly any cries When Pain danced tiptoe in her pallid niche. O bitter my immedicable woe -- And must I lose you? Ah, I could not tell! Chimerical seemed life and love and youth. I never knew that I could suffer so Until I ate that chocolate caramel And throbbed with you, O sorely stricken tooth! II I felt that crumbling, teetering thrill again: Life was a nausea, earth a black disgrace; The sunlight was offensive to my face; Man, made of mud, and conduited for pain. I longed to probe through tissue, nerve and vein And with some thin, sharp instrument to chase This lurking fiend of torment from his place And free the devil tugging at his chain. A shaking, shuddering pang, and I was shent; It seemed to split my skull, without a warning; I thought: I hope I'll soon be dead, by Jove! I took my hat and stick, and out I went. The druggist, as I bought some oil of clove, Said, "What a jolly, sunny Sunday morning!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EMPEDOCLES ON ETNA; A DRAMATIC POEM by MATTHEW ARNOLD THE VALLEY BROOK by JOHN HOWARD BRYANT ON A VIRTUOUS YOUNG GENTLEWOMAN THAT DIED SUDDENLY by WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT BOOKER T. WASHINGTON by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE LORDS OF THE MAIN by JOSEPH STANSBURY |