[{"node":{"title":"Greacen033","Collections":"Unpublished Poems","Contributor":"Greacen Estate","Coverage":"19 Jan","Creator":"Linen Hall Library","Date":"Wednesday, March 16, 2016","Format":"TIFF","Identifier":"Greacen033","Item Description":"Manuscript","Keywords":"The nightmare","Language":"English","Path":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/greacen033","Publisher":"Linen Hall Library","Relation":"Linen Hall Library","Rights":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA","Scanned image":{"src":"https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/Greacen033_0.jpg","alt":""},"Source":"LHL Archive","Transcript":"\ufeffThe Nightmare\n(or The Two Shadows)\n\nIn any case life is but a procession of shadows, and God knows\nwhy it is that we embrace them so eagerly, and see them depart\nwith such anguish, being shadows: Virginia Woolf, Jacobs Room.\n\nThe shadows turn away. Who is that man,\nA prisoner of mislaid hopes, who shuffles in distress,\nThrough the moraine of the years? What soul unblessed?\nThe coming was hard, but touching the liquid fire was harder,\nDown, down, down into the shifting nightmare depths,\nFalling through forests green and spongey where a thousand\nmetallic eyes\n\nGlinted from snakeheads like a thousand little fires \u2022\u2022\u2022\nLook up, first shadow, and see the zigzag way you came!\n(He cannot lift his head for shame.) O the way was long,\nThe coming was hard and soft by fits and starts,\nAs he fell and twisted but never resisted\nAnd came in a dazzle and haze of amazement\nBut look! the second shadow is stippled\nWith startling brightness, as though pinpointed, by vivid day\n- His twin lies passionless, mute, mantled in night -\nFor he resisted falling, all the way.\nTrue, he also fell in the end, witness his wounds.\nHe turns his head towards the broken back of the sky,\nAnd seemingly finds peace in this outlaw sphere of loneliness,\nKnows freedom through necessity, finds life in death.\n","Type":"Text"}}]