///painajainen///

so on his nightmare through the evening fog
flits the squab fiend o'er fen, and lake, and bog;
seeks some love-wilder'd maid with sleep oppress'd,
alights, and grinning sits upon her breast.



[fuseli]


—such as of late amid the murky sky
was mark'd by fuseli's poetic eye;
whose daring tints, with shakspeare's happiest grace,
gave to the airy phantom form and place.—
back o'er her pillow sinks her blushing head,
her snow-white limbs hang helpless from the bed;
her interrupted heart-pulse swims in death.

o'er her fair limbs convulsive tremors fleet,
start in her hands, and struggle in her feet;
in vain to scream with quivering lips she tries,
and strains in palsy'd lids her tremulous eyes;
in vain she wills to run, fly, swim, walk, creep;
the will presides not in the bower of sleep.
—on her fair bosom sits the demon-ape
erect, and balances his bloated shape;
rolls in their marble orbs his gorgon-eyes,
and drinks with leathern ears her tender cries.
[darwin]

nightmara. not uncommon at all.