A Dream

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