By myself walking, <br />To myself talking, <br />When as I ruminate <br />On my untoward fate, <br />Scarcely seem I <br />Alone sufficiently, <br />Black thoughts continually <br />Crowding my privacy; <br />They come unbidden, <br />Like foes at a wedding, <br />Thrusting their faces <br />In better guests' places, <br />Peevish and malecontent, <br />Clownish, impertinent, <br />Dashing the merriment: <br />So in like fashions <br />Dim cogitations <br />Follow and haunt me, <br />Striving to daunt me, <br />In my heart festering, <br />In my ears whispering, <br />'Thy friends are treacherous, <br />'Thy foes are dangerous, <br />'Thy dreams ominous.' <br /> <br /> <br />Fierce Anthropophagi, <br />Spectre, Diaboli, <br />What scared St. Antony, <br />Hobgoblins, Lemures, <br />Dreams of Antipodes, <br />Night-riding Incubi <br />Troubling the fantasy, <br />All dire illusions <br />Causing confusions; <br />Figments heretical, <br />Scruples fantastical, <br />Doubts diabolical, <br />Abaddon vexeth me, <br />Mahu perplexeth me, <br />Lucifer teareth me- <br /> <br />Jesu! Maria! liberate nos ab his diris tentationibus Inimici.<br /><br />Charles Lamb<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/hypochondriacus/
