Shapes and Signs

I SEE black dragons mount the sky,

   I see earth yawn beneath my feet --

      I feel within the asp, the worm

That will not sleep and cannot die,

   Fair though may show the winding-sheet!

      I hear all night as through a storm

      Hoarse voices calling, calling

         My name upon the wind--

      All omens monstrous and appalling

         Affright my guilty mind.

I exult alone in one wild hour --

   That hour in which the red cup drowns

      The memories it anon renews

In ghastlier guise, in fiercer power --

   Then Fancy brings me golden crowns,

      And visions of all brilliant hues

      Lap my lost soul in gladness,

         Until I awake again,

      And the dark lava-fires of madness

         Once more sweep through my brain.

James Clarence Mangan

Index to poems in the collection by James Clarence Mangan