Drugged

Drugged   autor: Walter de la Mare

The Veil and Other Poems (1921)

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 Inert in his chair,
 In a candle’s guttering glow;
 His bottle empty,
 His fire sunk low;
 With drug-sealed lips shut fast,
 Unsated mouth ajar,
 This darkened phantasm walks
 Where nightmares are:

 In a frenzy of life and light,
 Crisscross - a menacing throng -
 They gibe, they squeal at the stranger,
 Jostling along,
 Their faces cadaverous grey:
 While on high from an attic stare
 Horrors, in beauty apparelled,
 Down the dark air.

 A stream gurgles over its stones,
 The chambers within are afire.
 Stumble his shadowy feet
 Through shine, through mire;
 And the flames leap higher.
 In vain yelps the wainscot mouse;
 In vain beats the hour;
 Vacant his body must drowse
 Until daybreak flower -

 Staining these walls with its rose,
 And the draughts of the morning shall stir
 Cold on cold brow, cold hands.
 And the wanderer
 Back to flesh house must return.
 Lone soul -in horror to see,
 That dream more meagre and awful,
 Reality.

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