OXFORD CANAL
But all through the autumn nights the souls of the lost pass through the willow-trees.
I have observed great storms and trembled: I have wept in the dark for fear,
But nothing makes me so afraid as the clear water of that empty Canal at noon.
Do you see the great telegraph poles down in the water—how every wire is distinct?
If a body fell into the Canal it would rest entangled in those wires for ever, between earth and heaven:
For the water is as deep as the sky itself.
One day I was foolishly wondering how if a man fell off that lofty pole,
He would rush through the water towards me till the images were scattered by his splash,
When suddenly a train rushed by: the brazen dome of the engine flashed: the long white carriages roared;
The sun veiled himself for a moment, and the signals loomed in fog;
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