To feel the hideous darkness round me press,

Adding new terror to my loneliness;

While every pulse leapt quick

To clutch and grasp at the black, stifling air,

Then sink in stupor from my wild despair.

It comes upon me now!

I cannot breathe, my heart grows sick and chill,

Oh, mother, are your arms about me still—

Still o’er me do you bow?

And yet I care not, better all alone,