Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IN THE DARK, by WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS Poet's Biography First Line: How often, when I wake from sleep at night Last Line: Over it, and gulfed me in its deeps below. Alternate Author Name(s): Howells, W. D. Subject(s): Ill-tempered; Night; Bedtime | ||||||||
How often, when I wake from sleep at night, I search my consciousness to find the ill That has lurked formlessly within it, still Haunting me with a shadowy affright; And try to seize it and to know aright Its vague proportions, and my frantic will Runs this way and runs that way, with a thrill Of horror, to all things that ban or blight! Then, when I find all well, it is as though The moment were some reef where I had crept From the wide waste of danger and of death, And for a little I might draw my breath Before the flood came up again, and swept Over it, and gulfed me in its deeps below. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BREATH OF NIGHT by RANDALL JARRELL HOODED NIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP by ROBINSON JEFFERS WORKING OUTSIDE AT NIGHT by DENIS JOHNSON POEM TO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by JUNE JORDAN COOL DARK ODE by DONALD JUSTICE POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M by DONALD JUSTICE ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT by BOB KAUFMAN |
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