'Twas like a maelstrom with a notch

'Twas like a Maelstrom, with a notch,
That nearer, every Day,
Kept narrowing it's boiling Wheel
Until the Agony

Toyed coolly with the final inch
Of your delirious Hem -
And you dropt, lost,
When something broke -
And let you from a Dream -

As if a Goblin with a Guage -
Kept measuring the Hours -
Until you felt your Second
Weigh, helpless, in his Paws -

And not a Sinew - stirred - could help,
And Sense was setting numb -
When God - remembered - and the Fiend
Let go, then, Overcome -

As if your Sentence stood - pronounced -
And you were frozen led
From Dungeon's luxury of Doubt
To Gibbets, and the Dead -

And when the Film had stitched your eyes
A Creature gasped "Repreive[^a1]"!
Which Anguish was the utterest - then -
To perish, or to live?

[^a1: Repreive | Reprieve]