Doubt, cypress crowned, upon a ruined arch Amid the shapely temple overthrown, Exultant, stays at length her onward march: Her victim, all with earthliness o'ergrown, Hath sunk himself to earth to perish there; His thoughts are outward, all his love a blight, Dying, deluding, are his hopes, though fair -- And death, the spirit's everlasting night. Thus, midnight travellers, on some mountain steep Hear far above the avalanche boom down, Starting the glacier echoes from their sleep, And lost in glens to human foot unknown -- The death-plunge of the lost come to their ear, And silence claims again her region cold and drear. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONTRA MORTEM: THE TREES by HAYDEN CARRUTH INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1956, A FAIRY TALE by JAMES GALVIN WORDS INTO WORDS WON'T GO by CLARENCE MAJOR THE PAST IS THE PRESENT (2) by MARIANNE MOORE THE LAST JUDGMENT by JOHN CROWE RANSOM |