Insomnia, impalpable creature!
In your mind only does love feature?
Coming, in rapture, to view thereby,
Beneath your evil eye, the man biting
His sheets and, in tedium, writhing! ...
Beneath your black diamond eye.
Say why, during the void of night,
Like a rainy Sunday, dull and white,
You come and lick us like a dog:
Hope or Regret, that watches here,
Beside our palpitating ear,
Speaking low...though mute as a log.
Why to our arid throat offer
A cup that’s empty forever,
Leaving the outstretched mouth instead,
Of Tantalus, quaffer of chimeras
The bitter lees of love philtres,
Fresh dew, or molten lead! –
Insomnia, are you not beautiful?...
Oh why, girl, of wantonness full,
Grip us so tightly between your knees,
Why moan against our taut lips so,
And why disturb our slumber, though
You won’t sleep with us at ease?
Why, impure Lady-of-the-Night,
This black cloth to mask your sight?...
Your scheme of golden dreams to hide?...
Are you not love in the void’s arena,
The breath of weary Messalina,
As yet unsatisfied!
Are you Hysteria, Insomnia ...
Are you the barrel-organ rather,
That plays the Elect’s Hosanna instead?...
Or are you the eternal plectrum
That on the nerves of the damned will strum
Condemned by a letter only they have read?
Insomnia, are you Buridan’s ass –
Or the path by which we pass
To Hell? – Your kiss of fire and guile,
Leaves a cold taste of iron and rust,
Oh! Set down in my hovel’s dust,
We’ll sleep together a while.