Homes stand in slumber. Sleep broods shadowingly In this deserted street's far-vista'd night, Save only where a little mortal light Sheds on the pave its careful boundary And shines a kindly host to each degree Of city wraith, where wan street shadows plight Strange troths. Lost footsteps echo and unite In a refrain that seems a threnody. The sweet low laughter of a girl's first tryst, The sob of homeless poverty, faint cries Struck dumb,—loud Folly, Mirth the satirist!— In silence once again Fate's byway lies. Brave little star, dawn pales, and through the mist Sadly you wane. How sad, and oh, how wise! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PARAGRAPHS: 15 by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE VIRTUOSO; IN IMITATION OF SPENCER'S STYLE AND STANZA by MARK AKENSIDE GOOD NIGHT by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR ON A TREE FALLEN ACROSS THE ROAD (TO HEAR US TALK) by ROBERT FROST EPITAPH FOR LINCOLN by WALT WHITMAN LYRICS AND EPICS by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE LANGUAGE OF THE EYES by EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON BULWER-LYTTON |