(A)

In deepest, darkest depths of my despair

I find myself without a saving grace.

A pendulum of pain prevents my prayer

from rising upward through the dead of space.

Cassie is dropped down the elevator, trapped down wherever it went without anyone to save her. “A pendulum of pain” could refer to her feelings as she’s been betrayed by one of her only friends, and that’s why it prevents the “prayer from rising upward” because she has no hope of being saved after experiencing betrayal like that.

(B)

Within these walls a war where no one wins

repeats itself just like a worn-out rhyme.

In Dawko’s interview Evan Lampi from steel wool studios says at 12:22 that “history doesnt repeat, it rhymes”.  The “war” is talking about mimic and how it’s continuing the violence from all those years ago in 1979. And the “walls” refers to the plex as that’s where the mimic has been continuing the “war”.

There is a theory that the plex is built over where MCM factory used to be, so if that’s true that would fit in how the mimic continues this “war” in the place where it all started. The mimic was originally a victim, but because it can’t heal, it makes others experience the pain he’s been through which is why this war has no winners. And so it continues like a rhyme, just like the poem says and how Evan Lampi(SWS) says.

(C)

No swain should e’er succumb to swinish sins,

for he who does the crime must do the time.

“Swain” means “young lover” or “suitor” and is a term used for men. I believe this is referring to the narrator, aka Cassie. The rest of the poem talks about someone that the narrator loves romantically who is female and since the narrators gender isn’t stated, it’s most likely referring to the narrator.

As for what the “sins” are, the adjective ‘swinish’ means “pig like” (swine). Using Merrim-Webster it means, “of, suggesting, or characteristic of swine: BEASTLY”. Meaning the narrator/cassie views this sin as something beastly, something cruel and compared to the behavior of an animal.

There is a sin Cassie is tempted to make, but it’s something she doesn’t want to do because she feels it’s cruel and that she would deserve consequences for it if she were to do it. As for what this sin could be, I will go into that in additional notes.

(D)

And yet there was a time I loved her true,

and in those days we dreamt without restraint.

This is the first time “her” is mentioned and this “her” is being brought up after the narrator says how they shouldn’t succumb to “swinish sins”.

(E)

These merry memories now make me rue

a life I should have lived with more constraint.

“Rue” means regret, meaning the narrator regrets not having restraint in this relationship with “her”. Cassie is shown to be very self sacrificing willing to go through the horrors to save her friend.

Perhaps the regret for “not having restraint” refers to how she regrets being so selfless and doing anything for her friend because of how “merry” her memories of their relationship are, Gregory makes her happy and she risked everything and committed some sort of “sin” because she doesn’t want to lose it.

(F)

For now, I dwell inside this cursed abyss,

a mournful soul who misses her sweet kiss.

Despite the narrator saying “there was a time I loved her true,” earlier, basically saying that love was gone, the last line of the poem shows that the narrator still “misses her sweet kiss”. Showing that the narrator still loves or at least has an attachment to “her” despite the regrets the narrator has.

Cassie is heartbroken over Gregory’s betrayal, but despite what she tells herself she still misses him.

Additional notes:

1. In section (C), I believe this sin refers to Cassie “deactivating” Roxy. While it didn’t exactly “kill” Roxy, she still betrays her and chooses Gregory over her. This is how Cassie views it from her perspective.

2. Since I believe this poem is supposed to be from Cassie’s POV, I don’t think that confirms that Gregory did drop the elevator or not since from Cassie’s perspective it was Gregory’s voice telling her that he had to do this.

3. There are 2 versions of this poem but they are mostly the same but with some different wording at the end. The second one I believe is the final version as the person who wrote it commented below it in 2025. The first version of the poem had an illustration of Satan from Paradise Lost.

In the final version there’s an illustration of a knight in a pit. I reverse image searched it and found out it was an illustration for a story called Orlando Furioso.

Interestingly, both illustrations are drawn by Gustave Dore.

4. While you could say that the stand ins for Cassie and Gregory not being their gender contradicts it being about them it actually fits with how fnaf’s done it before. In RUIN candy cadet tells a story about a mother, a son, and a monster. The mother traps the monster in the basement and the monster over time learns to instead copy the mother in order to trick the son into freeing it. This lines up perfectly with Gregory, Cassie, and the Mimic.

Sources:

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