Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 37 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 37: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 19 of a Victorian Penny Dreadful This is a page of running verse poetry, numbered 19, appearing to be from the middle of a serialized narrative. The text describes a scene of funeral procession and lamentation—a "mute victim" moving among mourning crowds with extinguished torches—before shifting focus to the plight of "wondering Psyche," who has been abandoned and now faces an approaching "monster fell" at a desert rock. The verse employs classical references (Hymen, the Lydian lyre) and romantic sensibility typical of melodramatic fiction, suggesting this likely adapts the myth of Cupid and Psyche with gothic horror elements.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
19 Pleased by the ambiguous doom the Fates promulge, The angry Goddess and enamoured Boy Alike content their various hopes indulge ; He, still exploring with an anxious eye Hs The future prospect of uncertain joy, Plans how the tender object of his care He may protect from threatened misery ; Ah sanguine Love! so oft deceived, forbear With flattering tints to paint illusive hope so fair, But now what lamentations rend the skies ! In amaracine wreaths the virgin choir With Io Hymen mingle funeral cries : Lost in the sorrows of the Lydian lyre The breathing flutes’ melodious notes expire ; In sad procession pass the mournful throng Extinguishing with tears the torches’ fire, While the mute victim weeping crowds among, By unknown fears oppressed, moves silently along. But on such scenes of terror and dismay The mournful Muse delights not long to dwell; She quits well pleased the melancholy lay, Nor vainly seeks the parents’ woes to tell: But what to wondering Psyche then befel When thus abandoned, let her rather say, Who shuddering looks to see some monster fell Approach the desert rock to seize his prey, With cruel fangs devour, or tear her thence away. G2 “ Connicloooks.comn