Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 31 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 31: what you’re looking at
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# Page 13 of Victorian Penny Dreadful This is a page of running verse poetry (page 13 of a serialized narrative). The text describes two fountains on an island: one pure and benign, the other corrupt and destructive. The "black deformed stream" spreads poison through the landscape, "forbidding every kindly prosperous growth," while its waters symbolically carry human suffering—anguish, hopeless tears, jealousy, and shame. The passage uses the contrast between the two fountains as an allegory for virtue and vice, with the poisonous stream representing moral corruption and emotional torment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
13 And in the grassy centre of the isle, Where the thick verdure spreads a damper shade, Amid their native rocks concealed awhile, Then o’er the plains in devious streams displayed, Two gushing fountains rise; and thence conveyed, ~ Their waters through the woods and vallies play, Visit each green recess and secret glade, With still unmingled, still meandering way, - Nor widely wandering far, can each from other stray. But of strange contrast gre their virtues found, And oft the lady of that isle has tried In rocky dens and caverns under ground, The black deformed stream in*vain to hide; _ Bursting all bounds her labours it defied ; Yet many a flowery sod its course conceals Through plains where deep its silent waters glide, - Till secret ruin all corroding steals, And every treacherous arch the hideous gulph reveals. ; ! Forbidding every kindly prosperous growth, Where’er it ran, a channel bleak it wore; . The gaping banks receded, as though loth - To touch the poison which disgraced their shore : There deadly anguish pours unmixed his store * of all the ills which sting the human breast, ‘The hopeless tears which past delights deplore, pecert-gnawing jealousy which knows no rest, And self-upbraiding shame, by stern remorse opprest. cConnicloooks.comn