NIGHTMARE

As though a thousand vampires, from the day

Fleeing unseen, oppressed that nightly deep,

The straitening and darkened skies of sleep

Closed on the dreamland dale in which I lay.

Eternal tensions numbed the wings of Time,

While through the unending narrow ways I sought

Awakening; up precipitous gloom I thought

To reach the dawn, far-pinnacled sublime.

Rejected at the closen gates of light

I turned, and down new dreams and shadows fled,

Where beetling Shapes of veiled, colossal dread

With Gothic wings enormous arched the night.