Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 135 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 135: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 117 of a Victorian Penny Dreadful This is a page of running verse prose from the narrative body of the text. It describes a dramatic maritime storm scene: a ship's passengers—particularly a woman named Psyche and her knight—endure a violent tempest at sea. The verse recounts rising winds, threatening waves, lightning, and their desperate efforts to steer the vessel away from a treacherous rocky coast. The passage employs ornate, melodramatic language typical of sensation fiction, emphasizing supernatural terror ("demons of the tempest") and emotional anguish as the couple faces danger.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The impatient question oft repeated thus He smiling hears, and still with many a tale, Or song of heavenly lore unknown tous) | Beguiles the live-long night, or flagging sail “When the fresh breeze begins their bark to fail, Strong ran the tide against the vessel’s course, And much they need the kind propitious gale Steady to bear against its rapid force, 7 And aid the lebonring: oars, their tedious last resourte, ~ But lo! the blackening surface of the deep With sullen murmurs now begins to swell, On ruffled wing the screaming, sea fowl sweep The unloyely surge, and piteous seem to tell How from the low-hung clouds with fury fell The demons of the tempest threatening rage ; There, brooding future terrors, yet they dwell, Till with collected force dread war they wage, And in conyulsive gusts the adverse winds engagt. . The trembling Psyche, supplicating Heaven, Lifts to the storm her fate-deploring eye, Sees o’er her head the livid lightning driven : Then, turned in horror from the blazing sky, Clings to her kniglit in speechless agony : He all his force exerts the bark to steer, And bids the mariners each effort try To escape the rocky coast which threatens near, For Hymen taught the youth that dangerous shore to fear, \& f Connicloooks.Ccomn