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THE FEAR OF MADNESS; FRAGMENT, by                    
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)





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