The Mother’s Tragedy

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.