A Child's Nightmare
A CHILD'S NIGHTMARE by ROBERT GRAVES
Through long nursery nights he stood
By my bed unwearying,
Loomed gigantic, formless, queer,
Purring in my haunted ear
That same hideous nightmare thing,
Talking, as he lapped my blood,
In a voice cruel and flat,
Saying for ever, 'Cat!...Cat!...Cat!...'
That one word was all he said,
That one word through all my sleep,
In monotonous mock despair.
Nonsense may be light as air,
But there's Nonsense that can keep
Horror bristling round the head,
When a voice cruel and flat
Says for ever, 'Cat!...Cat!...Cat!...'
He had faded, he was gone
Years ago with Nursery Land,
When he leapt on me again
From the clank of a night train,
Overpowered me foot and hand,
Lapped my blood, while on and on
The old voice cruel and flat
Purred for ever, 'Cat!...Cat!...Cat!...'
Morphia drowsed, again I lay
In a crater by High Wood:
He was there with straddling legs,
Staring eyes as big as eggs,
Purring as he lapped my blood,
His black bulk darkening the day,
With a voice cruel and flat,
'Cat!...Cat!...Cat!...' he said,
'Cat!...Cat!...'
When I'm shot through heart and head,
And there's no choice but to die,
The last word I'll hear, no doubt,
Won't be 'Charge!' or 'Bomb them out!'
Nor the stretcher-bearer's cry,
'Let that body be, he's dead!'
But a voice cruel and flat
Saying for ever, 'Cat!...Cat!...Cat!'
Title |
A Child's Nightmare
|
---|---|
Author |
Graves, Robert (1895-1985)
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Item date |
(1995, 1997, 1999)
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Content | |
Copyright |
The Robert Graves Copyright Trust
|
Digital repository | |
Repository name |
ProQuest
|
Repository address URL | |
First line |
Through long nursery nights he stood
|
Publication source |
Robert Graves Complete Poems: Volumes 1 - 3
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Publication editor |
Graves, Beryl and Ward, Dunstan
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Publishers |
Carcanet
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Publication place |
Manchester
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Collection
Citation
“A Child's Nightmare,” by Graves, Robert (1895-1985). The Robert Graves Copyright Trust via First World War Poetry Digital Archive, accessed March 29, 2024, http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/3393.
Permitted Use
This item is available for non-commercial educational use under the terms of the Jisc Model Licence. Further details available at: http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/permitteduse