Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LONDON AT NIGHT, by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER Poet's Biography First Line: Along the river squats and towers Last Line: Its splendour, terrible, august. Subject(s): London; Night; Bedtime | ||||||||
ALONG the river squats and towers The city: life and death and lust Light up in flames its darkening hours, In splendour, terrible, august. Misshapen bulks of shadow starred With orange fire sweep straight along: Their roofs with blazing light are barred; A gorgeous and a sordid throng! From a thousand chimney-stacks and more, That shatter the sky-line's black brute jumble, Vast curls of white smoke upward pour, That through the sky roll on and tumble Down the horizons red with lights, Down keel-thronged rivers, thundering bridges, Following the lines of endless streets That swoop down vales, and swarm up ridges; Wherever the city flames to-night, As mocking that poor show of stars, The hot smoke streams, and in its flight It throbs with the iron wheels of cars. In every street, in every square, In a million door- and window-frames, Life lights its terrible tawdry glare, Proclaiming loud its strength, its shames. Before thee, time and space were not: And ages fade before thy throne, O city, ever freshly wrought, Among the mighty, mightiest one! Poet and prophet, king and priest, Have filled thee with their gloom and joy: Building the structures, greatest, least, That all indifferent, dost destroy, To build anew more glorious walls, With feverish toil that never stops: To fill the desert with vast halls, To cram the woodland with roof-tops! The toil of ages on thy winds Vanishes, swift as puffs of steam; And time, with all its saints and sins, Is as the tide upon thy stream That laps the same bed evermore, But always sides of newer ships; Has risen, fallen, while a score Of centuries have touched thy lips. Meanwhile from ends of all the earth The flame-shod steeds of steel must bring, Defying river, peak, and firth, And the great sea, thy furnishing. I see thee grow out of thy past Into new shape, again, again, Ever thy present real and vast, The pride and the despair of men. No more a city, but a world Of smoke and stone in furious strife, A challenge down all ages hurled To match man's utmost might of life! Along the river squats and towers The city: life and death and lust Light up in flames its darkening hours, Its splendour, terrible, august. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BREATH OF NIGHT by RANDALL JARRELL HOODED NIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP by ROBINSON JEFFERS WORKING OUTSIDE AT NIGHT by DENIS JOHNSON POEM TO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by JUNE JORDAN COOL DARK ODE by DONALD JUSTICE POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M by DONALD JUSTICE ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT by BOB KAUFMAN ARIZONA POEMS: 2. MEXICAN QUARTER by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER |
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