I Stood Musing in a Black World
Stephen Crane 1871 – 1900
I stood musing in a black world,
Not knowing where to direct my feet.
And I saw the quick stream of men
Pouring ceaselessly,
Filled with eager faces,
A torrent of desire.
I called to them,
"Where do you go? What do you see?"
A thousand voices called to me.
A thousand fingers pointed.
"Look! look! There!"
I know not of it.
But, lo! In the far sky shone a radiance
Ineffable, divine --
A vision painted upon a pall;
And sometimes it was,
And sometimes it was not.
I hesitated.
Then from the stream
Came roaring voices,
Impatient:
"Look! look! There!"
So again I saw,
And leaped, unhesitant,
And struggled and fumed
With outspread clutching fingers.
The hard hills tore my flesh;
The ways bit my feet.
At last I looked again.
No radiance in the far sky,
Ineffable, divine;
No vision painted upon a pall;
And always my eyes ached for the light.
Then I cried in despair,
"I see nothing! Oh, where do I go?"
The torrent turned again its faces:
"Look! look! There!"
And at the blindness of my spirit
They screamed,
"Fool! fool! fool!"
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 104 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | abcdexxddxF xxGhxxxxexF xaxxxbcxGhxfxeF xxx |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,037 |
Words | 197 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 11, 15, 3 |
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"I Stood Musing in a Black World" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/35689/i-stood-musing-in-a-black-world>.
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