Observations placeholder
Borden, Mary - No, no! There is some sinister mistake
Identifier
013106
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Sargent, John Singer (RA) - Gassed
A description of the experience
No, no! There is some sinister mistake
No, no! There is some sinister mistake.
You cannot love me now.I am no more
A thing to touch, a pleasant thing to take
Into one's arms. How can a man adore
A woman with black blood upon her face,
A cap of horror on her pallid head,
Mirrors of madness in the sunken place
Of eyes; hands dripping with the slimy dead?
Go. Cover close your proud untainted brow.
Go quickly. Leave me to the hungry lust
Of monstrous pain. I am his mistress now -
These are the frantic beds of his delight -
Here I succumb to him, anew, each night.
Handwritten draft