Great City
Harold Monro 1879 (Brussels) – 1932
When I returned at sunset,
The serving-maid was singing softly
Under the dark stairs, and in the house
Twilight had entered like a moon-ray.
Tune was so dead I could not understand
The meaning of midday or of midnight,
But like falling waters, falling, hissing, falling,
Silence seemed an everlasting sound.
I sat in my room,
And watched sunset,
And saw starlight.
I heard the tramp of homing men,
And the last call of the last child;
Then a lone bird twittered,
And suddenly, beyond the housetops,
I imagined dew in the country,
In the hay, on the buttercups;
The rising moon,
The scent of early night,
The songs, the echoes,
Dogs barking,
Day closing,
Gradual slumber,
Sweet rest.
When all the lamps were lighted in the town
I passed into the street ways and I watched,
Wakeful, almost happy,
And half the night I wandered in the street.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 142 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCXXDEX XADXXACBXXDXEEXX XXBX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 831 |
Words | 151 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 16, 4 |
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"Great City" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/16849/great-city>.
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