I slept, and out of their ancient tombs of tissue-plasm streamed a shadowy host of Living Dead. Gliding silently across the waxed and shining floor of my soul, they breathed their breaths upon the emptièd mirror of my mind: And Terror and Guilt captained that crew.
The subtle fingers of the dawn brushed my brow and my soul flowed back into the sluiceways of the old familiar world; But long I laid in wonder staring at the wall, for in that night I had again become the Things I was before my birth. And Terror and Guilt were old shapes of me.
Publication History
The Shadow-Eater [1915/17 and 1923]
1923 Edition Text Changes
- I slept, and > I slept, ⁋ And
- my soul, they > my soul, ⁋ They
- my brow and > my brow ⁋ And
- the wall, for > the wall, ⁋ For
- my birth. > my birth: