Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE STREET BEHIND YOURS, by JAMES STEPHENS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE STREET BEHIND YOURS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The night droops down upon the street
Last Line: And the gutter grumbling down!
Subject(s): Cities; Night; Urban Life; Bedtime


The night droops down upon the street,
Shade after shade! A solemn frown
Is pressing to
A deeper hue
The houses drab and brown;
Till all in blackness touch and meet,
Are mixed and melted down.

All is so silent! Not a sound
Comes through the dark! The gas lamps throw
From here and there
A feeble glare
On the pavement cracked below;
On the greasy, muddy ground;
On the houses in a row.

Those rigid houses, black and sour!
Each dark thin building stretching high;
Rank upon rank
Of windows blank
Stare from a sullen eye;
With doleful aspect scowl and glower
At the timid passer-by.

And down between those spectre files
The narrow roadway, thick with mud,
Doth crouch and hide!
While close beside
The gutter churns a flood
Of noisome water through the piles
Of garbage, thick as blood!

And tho' 'tis silent! Tho' no sound
Crawls from the blackness thickly spread!
Yet darkness brings
Grim, noiseless things
That walk as they were dead!
They glide, and peer, and steal around,
With stealthy, silent tread!

You dare not walk! That awful crew
Might speak or laugh as you pass by!
Might touch and paw
With a formless claw,
Or leer from a sodden eye!
Might whisper awful things they knew!
-- Or wring their hands and cry!

There is the doorway mean and low!
And there are the houses drab and brown!
And the night's black pall!
And the hours that crawl!
And the forms that peer and frown!
And the lamps' dim glare on the slush below!
And the gutter grumbling down!





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