I dreamed I was a spider; <br />A big, fat, hungry spider; <br />A lusty, rusty spider <br />With a dozen palsied limbs; <br />With a dozen limbs that dangled <br />Where three wretched flies were tangled <br />And their buzzing wings were strangled <br />In the middle of their hymns. <br /> <br />And I mocked them like a demon-- <br />A demoniacal demon <br />Who delights to be a demon <br />For the sake of sin alone; <br />And with fondly false embraces <br />Did I weave my mystic laces <br />Round their horror-stricken faces <br />Till I muffled every groan. <br /> <br />And I smiled to see them weeping, <br />For to see an insect weeping, <br />Sadly, sorrowfully weeping, <br />Fattens every spider's mirth; <br />And to note a fly's heart quaking, <br />And with anguish ever aching <br />Till you see it slowly breaking <br />Is the sweetest thing on earth. <br /> <br />I experienced a pleasure, <br />Such a highly-flavored pleasure, <br />Such intoxicating pleasure, <br />That I drank of it like wine; <br />And my mortal soul engages <br />That no spider on the pages <br />Of the history of ages <br />Felt a rapture more divine. <br /> <br />I careened around and capered-- <br />Madly, mystically capered-- <br />For three days and nights I capered <br />Round my web in wild delight; <br />Till with fierce ambition burning, <br />And an inward thirst and yearning <br />I hastened my returning <br />With a fiendish appetite. <br /> <br />And I found my victims dying, <br />'Ha!' they whispered, 'we are dying!' <br />Faintly whispered, 'we are dying, <br />And our earthly course is run.' <br />And the scene was so impressing <br />That I breathed a special blessing, <br />As I killed them with caressing <br />And devoured them one by one.<br /><br />James Whitcomb Riley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-dream-121/
