THE silver-powdered willows of the Quai Rise frosty-clear against the roseate skies, The winter sunlight mellows ere it dies And lingers where the frozen river lies. Between the hurrying wharves, a sheet of grey It sleeps beneath the parapet of stone: A sudden desolation, empty, lone And silent with a silence of its own. All round the city vast and loud and gay! ...If one should weary of the press and din And venture here, beware! the crust is thin; One step -- and lo, the Abyss would draw him in. Athwart the happiest lives of every day Beside the Lovers' Walk, the household mart, Think ye there lies no silent road apart? No mute and frozen Chasm of the heart? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1) by GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON LAMENT OF THE IRISH EMIGRANT by HELEN SELINA SHERIDAN THE LACHRYMATORY by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER CHRISTMAS LULLABY by MARY KATUS ANDERSON FOUR SONNETS: 2 by FRANK DAVIS ASHBURN THE QUEEN IN FRANCE; AN ANCIENT SCOTTISH BALLAD by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN FRAGMENTS INTENDED FOR DEATH'S JEST-BOOK: SACRIFICE SELF-COMPENSATED by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |