Poems of Madison Cawein Vol. 4 — The Forest of Dreams

I

Where was I last Friday night?

-- Within the Forest of dark Dreams Following the blur of a goblin light, That led me over dreadful streams, Whereon the scum of the spawn was spread, And the blistered slime, in stagnant seams;

Where the weed and the moss swam black and dead, Like a drowned girl's hair, in the ropy ooze: And the jack-o'-lantern light that led Flickered the foxfire trees o'erhead, And the owl-like things at airy cruise.

II

Where was I last Friday night?

-- Within the Forest of dark Dreams Following a form of shadowy white With my own wild face it seems.

-- Did a raven's wing just fan my hair?

Or a web-winged bat brush by my face?

Or the hand of--something I did not dare Look round to see in that obscene place!

Where the boughs, with their leaves a-devil's-dance, And the thorn-tree bush, where the wind made moan, Had more than a strange significance Of life and of evil not their own.

III

Where was I last Friday night?

-- Within the Forest of dark Dreams Seeing the mists rise left and right, Like the leathery fog that heaves and steams From the rolling horror of Hell's red streams: While the wind, that tossed in the tattered tree, And danced alone with the last mad leaf-- Or _was_ it the wind?...

kept whispering me, "Come!

bury it here with its own black grief, And its heart of fire that naught can save!"

-- And there in the darkness I seemed to see My own self digging my soul a grave.