Weekly Trinity journal., 1861-02-23
The journal.
The Fire Fiemd-A Nightmare.
FROM AN UNPUBLISHED MSS. OF EDGAR A ZOE

FROM AN UNPUBLISHED MSS. OF EDGAR A roe.
In the deepest dirth OF midnight, while the sad
and solemn swell
Still was floating, family echoed from the forest
chapel bell
Family faltcringly floating, DER the sable waves
of air,
That were tbro' the midnight rolling chafed and
billowy with the toling-
In my chamber lay dreaming, by the frelight's
ftful cleaning
And my dreams were dreams foreshadowed on o
heart foredoomed to care!
As the last long, lingering echo Of the midnghts
Lifting through the sable billows Of the tbither
shore of Time
Leaving on the startless silence not token nor
trace
In quivering sigh departed from my couch in
fear started -;
Started to my feet in terror, for my dreams
phantasmal error
Painted in the ltful fire frghtful, fiendish,
flaming face!
On the red hearth's reddcst center, from a blaz-
ing knot of oak,
Seemed to gibe and grin this phantom when in
terror | awoke,
And my slumberous eyelids straining, as stag
gered to the floor,
Still in that dread vision seeming, turned my gaze
toward the cleaning
Hearth and there! oh, God l saw it; and
from its flaming jaw it
Spat ceaselcss, secthing, Kissing, bubbllng
gurgling stream of gore
SPECIFICS, struck with stony silence, frozen to
the floor stood,
Till methought my brain was Kissing with that
Kissing, bubbing blood
Till | felt my life stream oozing, oozing from
those lambent lips
Till the demon seemed to name me, when won
drous calm came re me,
And my brow grew cold and dewy with death
damp stiff and gluey
And fell back on my pillow, in apparent soul
eclipse.
Then, as in deaths seeming shadow, in the icy
fall of fear,
/ lay, stricken, came a hoarse and hideous mur-
mur to my car
Came murmer like the murmer Of assassins in
their sleep
Muttering higher higher higher am Demon
Of the Fire
/ am Arch Fiend of the Fire and each blazing
roofs my pyre,
And my sweetest incense is the blood and tears
my victim weeps
GLOW revel on the prairie how roar amongst
the pines
How | laugh, when from the village, DER the
snow the red fame shines,
And | hear the shrieks OF terror, with life in
every breath
How | scream with lambent laughter, as | hurl
each cracking rafter
Down the fell abyss Of Gre-until, higher
higher higher!
Leap the high priests Of my altar, in their merry
dance of death
] am Monarch Of the Fire Il am Vassal King of
Death
World enriching, with the shadow OF its doom
upon my breath
With the symbol OF Hereafter flaming from my
fatal face -
! command the Eternal Fire Higher higher
higher higher!
Leapmy ninistering demons, like phantasmagorc
lemans
1lugging Universal Nature in their hide0ns en- |
brace ~
Then sombre silence shut me in solemn,
shrouding sleep,
And slunbered like an infant in the L" cradle
of the deep"
Till the bcliry in the forest quivered with the
matin stroke,
And the mathis, from the edges of its linchen-
ldded lodges,
Shmmered through the russet arches, where the
light in torn files marches,
Like "a routed army, struggling through the ser
ried ranks of oak.
Thro' my ivy fretted easement, filtered in trcm-
ulous note
From the tall and stately linden where the robin
swelled his throat
Quaruous quaker breasted robin, calling quaint
ly for his mate!
Then | started up unbidden from my slumber,
nightmare ridden,
With the memory of that dire demon in my cen
tral fire,
On my eyes interior mirror like the shadow of
fatel
Ah ! the Gendish fire had smouldered 10 white
and formless heap,
And no knot of oak was flaming as it famed up
on my sleep;
But around its very center, where the demon
face had shone,
Forked shadows seemed to linger pointing, as
with spectral fingers,
To Bible, massive, golden, on a table carved
and oden;
And bowed and said, "All power is of God
Of God alone!"