DARK in the west the sunset's sombre wrack Unrolled vast walls the rams of war had split, Along whose battlements the battle lit Tempestuous beacons; and, with gates hurled back, A mighty city, red with ruin and sack, Through burning breaches, crumbling bit by bit, Showed where the God of Slaughter seemed to sit With Conflagration glaring at each crack. -- Who knows? perhaps as sleep unto us makes Our dreams as real as our waking seems With recollections time can not destroy, So in the mind of Nature now awakes, Haply, some wilder memory, and she dreams The stormy story of the fall of Troy. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NIGHT AND DAY: 4 by ISAAC ROSENBERG LINES TO WILLIAM LINLEY WHILE HE SANG A SONG TO PURCELL'S MUSIC by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE THE FALL; A GREAT FAVORIT BEHEADED by LUIS DE GONGORA MISS KILMANSEGG AND HER PRECIOUS LEG: HER DEATH by THOMAS HOOD UPON THE DEATH OF MY EVER CONSTANT FRIEND DOCTOR DONNE, DEAN OF PAUL'S by HENRY KING (1592-1669) THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 14 by OMAR KHAYYAM NORTH-WEST PASSAGE: 2. SHADOW MARCH by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON |