Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 104 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 104: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 86: Running Prose from a Narrative Poem This page contains numbered verse (page 86) depicting a scene of anxious waiting and distressing imagination. A character named Psyche, unable to sleep at midnight, watches from a tower window hoping to hear her lover's voice but hears only a night-bird's cry. The text then addresses the reader directly, asking if they have experienced deferred hope and suspense, before revealing that a character called Disfida is filling Psyche's mind with terrifying false tales—of torrents, ambushed foes, magicians, and enchantments—causing Psyche to imagine her knight betrayed, wounded, and dying. The passage emphasizes emotional torment through Gothic imagery and melodramatic language typical of Victorian sensation fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- 1 8 - * .T] ” ry @ a The sullen bell had told the midnight hour, And sleep had laid the busy world to.restya) (ret All but the watchful lady ofthat bower And wretched Psyche: her distracted breast _ The agony of sad suspense opprest, Now to the casement eagerly she flies, Ke And now the wished-for voice her fancy blest: Alas! the screaming night-bird only cries; _ : Only the drear obscure there meets her straining eyes, Has thy heart sickened with deferred hope ? Or felt the impatient anguish of suspense? Or hast thou tasted of the bitter cup | Which disappointment’s withered hands. lisa Thou knowest the poison which o’erflowed from hence O’er Psyche’s tedious, miserable hours. The unheeded notes of plaintive Innocence | No longer sooth her soul with wonted powers, | ih While false Disfida’s tales her listening ear devours. f “A Of rapid torrents and deep marshy fens, Of ambushed foes and unseen pits they tell, Of ruffians rushing from their secret dens, Of foul magicians and of wizard spell, The poisoned lance and net invisible ; While Psyche shudder’ ing sees her knight betrayed Into the snares of some enchanter fell, _ Beholds him bleeding i in the treacherous shade, Or hears his dying voice implore in vain for aid. comicbooks. conn