The City of Dreadful Night

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The City of Dreadful Night, by James
Thomson
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Title: The City of Dreadful Night
Author: James Thomson
Release Date: March, 1998 [EBook #1238]
[Most recently updated:
June 16, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE CITY OF

DREADFUL NIGHT ***
This etext was prepared by Michael C. Browning
Etext prepared by Michael C. Browning
THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT
BY
JAMES THOMSON
Per me si va nella citta dolente.
--Dante
Poi di tanto adoprar, di tanti moti
D'ogni celeste, ogni terrena cosa,

Girando senza posa,
Per tornar sempre la donde son mosse;
Uso
alcuno, alcun frutto
Indovinar non so.
Sola nel mondo eterna, a cui si volve
Ogni creata cosa,
In te, morte,
si posa
Nostra ignuda natura;
Lieta no, ma sicura
Dell' antico
dolor . . .
Pero ch' esser beato
Nega ai mortali e nega a' morti il fato.
--Leopardi
PROEM
Lo, thus, as prostrate, "In the dust I write
My heart's deep languor and
my soul's sad tears."
Yet why evoke the spectres of black night
To
blot the sunshine of exultant years?
Why disinter dead faith from
mouldering hidden? 5 Why break the seals of mute despair unbidden,

And wail life's discords into careless ears?
Because a cold rage seizes one at whiles
To show the bitter old and
wrinkled truth
Stripped naked of all vesture that beguiles, 10 False
dreams, false hopes, false masks and modes of youth; Because it gives
some sense of power and passion
In helpless innocence to try to

fashion
Our woe in living words howe'er uncouth.
Surely I write not for the hopeful young, 15 Or those who deem their
happiness of worth,
Or such as pasture and grow fat among
The
shows of life and feel nor doubt nor dearth,
Or pious spirits with a
God above them
To sanctify and glorify and love them, 20 Or sages
who foresee a heaven on earth.
For none of these I write, and none of these
Could read the writing if
they deigned to try;
So may they flourish in their due degrees,
On
our sweet earth and in their unplaced sky. 25 If any cares for the weak
words here written,
It must be some one desolate, Fate-smitten,

Whose faith and hopes are dead, and who would die.
Yes, here and there some weary wanderer
In that same city of
tremendous night, 30 Will understand the speech and feel a stir
Of
fellowship in all-disastrous fight;
"I suffer mute and lonely, yet
another
Uplifts his voice to let me know a brother
Travels the same
wild paths though out of sight." 35
O sad Fraternity, do I unfold
Your dolorous mysteries shrouded from
of yore?
Nay, be assured; no secret can be told
To any who divined
it not before: 40 None uninitiate by many a presage
Will comprehend
the language of the message,
Although proclaimed aloud for
evermore.
I
The City is of Night; perchance of Death
But certainly of Night; for
never there
Can come the lucid morning's fragrant breath
After the
dewy dawning's cold grey air:
The moon and stars may shine with
scorn or pity 5 The sun has never visited that city,
For it dissolveth in
the daylight fair.
Dissolveth like a dream of night away;
Though present in

distempered gloom of thought
And deadly weariness of heart all day.
10 But when a dream night after night is brought
Throughout a week,
and such weeks few or many
Recur each year for several years, can
any
Discern that dream from real life in aught?
For life is but a dream whose shapes return, 15 Some frequently, some
seldom, some by night
And some by day, some night and day: we
learn,
The while all change and many vanish quite,
In their
recurrence with recurrent changes
A certain seeming order; where
this ranges 20 We count things real; such is memory's might.
A river girds the city west and south,
The main north channel of a
broad lagoon,
Regurging with the salt tides from the mouth;
Waste
marshes shine and glister to the moon 25 For leagues, then moorland
black, then stony ridges;
Great piers and causeways, many noble
bridges,
Connect the town and islet suburbs strewn.
Upon an easy