 | Voices and visions |  |
122
PAVEMENT PICTURES
Wild storm, this languid summer night,
Clashed o'er the city an hour ago;
But now, released in heaven's blue height,
A moon has brought her sorrowing glow,
To flood the massed roofs' dimness dense
With pale celestial penitence.
Clashed o'er the city an hour ago;
But now, released in heaven's blue height,
A moon has brought her sorrowing glow,
To flood the massed roofs' dimness dense
With pale celestial penitence.
The breeze wakes rich in soothing damps;
Faint spires loom silvered; and one sees
In street or square, by rain-splashed lamps,
The wet leaves flickering on stray trees;
While black fantastic shapes of dream
Bold from the drying pavements gleam.
Faint spires loom silvered; and one sees
In street or square, by rain-splashed lamps,
The wet leaves flickering on stray trees;
While black fantastic shapes of dream
Bold from the drying pavements gleam.
Chance moods of moisture's random change,
The dumb stone flaunts their blots grotesque,
Where freaks of spectral traceries range
Through many an elfin arabesque—
Till the huge town's vice, crime, despair,
Seems devilishly pictured there.
The dumb stone flaunts their blots grotesque,
Where freaks of spectral traceries range
Through many an elfin arabesque—
Till the huge town's vice, crime, despair,
Seems devilishly pictured there.
| Voices and visions | |