Page:The city of dreadful night - and other poems (IA cityofdreadfulni00thomrich).pdf/81

IN THE ROOM.

1867-68.

"Ceste insigne fable et tragicque comedie."—Rabelais.

I.

The sun was down, and twilight grey

Filled half the air; but in the room,
Whose curtain had been drawn all day,
The twilight was a dusky gloom:
Which seemed at first as still as death,
And void; but was indeed all rife
With subtle thrills, the pulse and breath
Of multitudinous lower life.

II.

In their abrupt and headlong way

Bewildered flies for light had dashed
Against the curtain all the day,
And now slept wintrily abashed;