At the edge of a beautiful gulf of gloom and stillness, The city rises: Glittering with thousands of spangles Seen between the dull smoke of the trains That leap out shoreward, Or bump empty freight-cars into each other, With a noise like surf collapsing. One or two lights low down Seemingly blurred by mist, The grey outline of dunes beyond, And watery stars. For the wind is bringing rain To stream down the spangled house-fronts, To make the lights of the city run together, Growing more dim. At the edge of a beautiful gulf of gloom and stillness The city rises: And behind her painted mask She frowns a little, growing more weary, Yet shedding abroad to the night The glow of a thousand spangles, Her glory, where winds will whirl it Through dry blades of grass on the dunes. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SCHOLAR GIPSY by MATTHEW ARNOLD THE RIVER by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE STARLIGHT NIGHT by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS THE SOUND OF THE SEA; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW CLANCY OF THE MOUNTED POLICE by ROBERT WILLIAM SERVICE |