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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE STREET LAMP, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Homes stand in slumber. Sleep broods shadowingly
Last Line: Sadly you wane. How sad, and oh, how wise!
Subject(s): Abandonment; Cities; Grief; Homeless; Poverty; Desertion; Urban Life; Sorrow; Sadness
First Line: Homes stand in slumber. Sleep broods shadowingly
Last Line: Sadly you wane. How sad, and oh, how wise!
Subject(s): Abandonment; Cities; Grief; Homeless; Poverty; Desertion; Urban Life; Sorrow; Sadness
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!
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