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- THE MENTAL TRAVELLER.
- 1.
- I travelled through a land of men,
- A land of men and women, too,
- And saw and heard such dreadful things
- As cold earth-wanderers never knew.
- 2.
- As cold earth-wanderers never knew.
- For there the babe is born in joy
- That was begotten in dire woe,
- Just as we reap in joy the fruit
- That we in bitter tears did sow.
- 3.
- That we in bitter tears did sow.
- And if the babe is born a boy
- He's given to a woman old
- Who nails him down upon a rock,
- Catches his shrieks in cups of gold.
- 4.
- Catches his shrieks in cups of gold.
- She binds iron thorns about his head,
- She pierces both his hands and feet,
- She cuts his heart out at his side
- To make it feel both cold and heat.
- 5.
- To make it feel both cold and heat.
- Her fingers number every nerve,
- Just as a miser counts his gold ;
- She lives upon his shrieks and cries,
- And she grows young as he grows old.
- 6.
- And she grows young as he grows old.
- Till he becomes a bleeding youth,
- And she becomes a virgin bright ;
- Then he rends up his manacles
- And binds her down for his delight.
- 7.
- And binds her down for his delight.
- He plants himself in all her nerves,
- Just as a husbandman his mould,
- And she becomes his dwelling-place
- And garden fruitful seventyfold.
- 8.
- And garden fruitful seventyfold.
- An aged shadow, soon he fades,
- Wandering round an earthly cot,
- Full filled all with gems and gold
- Which he by industry has got.