A Bipolar Mania In Rhyme
I.
O Bacchanalia! O wild Mania,
be this crazed ecstasy the touch of God!?
To be transported bodes Arcadia:
but this sense—this awareness!—is too odd.
O manic shape! Touched attitude of thought!
This sudden, unlooked-for, deranged climax
of the mind inspires with enraptured thrill.
Calliope! thou hast me overwrought:
whence springs this manic grammar and syntax,
this wondrous expression which melts gloom's chill?
II.
Thou rhapsody! Thou monumental bliss!
What euphoria overwhelms the brain?
With eloquent Calliope's moist kiss,
thrilled ravishment uplifts the head's domain.
O Joy! Great, great Joy! Intense happiness,
with rapture mingled, revives the psyche
with grandiose delusion of the mind;
then glee that transcends efforts to express,
like preternatural Being whose frenzy
all at once overpowers, strikes me blind!
III.
Erelong is the psyche sorely distress'd,
as slowly is ruined the one diseased
by dire imbalance of the brain! Oppress'd,
and finding Mania now none appeased,
I wane with her then fading servitude;
for in her wake she leaves a deadly unrest
(that will perforce require the mortician).
For wretchedness of mind damns the unblest:
but o'er souls where with angels devils feud,
God can heal as the Divine Physician.
Copyright © Ngoc Nguyen | Year Posted 2021
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