Arthur Christopher Benson (1862-1925)
Self
1This is my chiefest torment, that behind
2 The brave and subtle spirit, the swift brain,
3 There sits and shivers, in a cell of pain,
4A groping atom, melancholy, blind,
5Which is myself; -- though, when spring suns are kind,
6 And rich leaves riot in the genial rain,
7 I cheat him, dreaming: slip my rigorous chain,
8Free as a skiff before the dancing wind.
9Then he awakes: and vexed that I am glad,
10 In dreary malice strains some nimble cord,
11 Pricks his thin claw within some delicate nerve;
12 And all at once I falter, start, and swerve
13From my true course, to fall, unmanned and sad,
14 Into gross darkness, tangible, abhorred.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Arthur Christopher Benson,
The Professor and Other Poems (London: John Lane the Bodley Head, 1900): 7-8.
PR 4099 B5P7 Robarts Library
First publication date:
1897
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2001
Recent editing: 1:2002/10/5
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: abbaabbacdeecd
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