قراءة كتاب The City of Dreadful Night

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‏اللغة: English
The City of Dreadful Night

The City of Dreadful Night

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
الصفحة رقم: 5

pell-mell                 30
  For Devil's roll-call and some fete of Hell:
    Yet I strode on austere;
    No hope could have no fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,
  As I came through the desert: Meteors ran                   35
  And crossed their javelins on the black sky-span;
  The zenith opened to a gulf of flame,
  The dreadful thunderbolts jarred earth's fixed frame;
  The ground all heaved in waves of fire that surged
  And weltered round me sole there unsubmerged:               40
    Yet I strode on austere;
    No hope could have no fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,
  As I came through the desert: Air once more,
  And I was close upon a wild sea-shore;                      45
  Enormous cliffs arose on either hand,
  The deep tide thundered up a league-broad strand;
  White foambelts seethed there, wan spray swept and flew;
  The sky broke, moon and stars and clouds and blue:
    Yet I strode on austere;                                  50
    No hope could have no fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,
  As I came through the desert: On the left
  The sun arose and crowned a broad crag-cleft;
  There stopped and burned out black, except a rim,           55
  A bleeding eyeless socket, red and dim;
  Whereon the moon fell suddenly south-west,
  And stood above the right-hand cliffs at rest:
    Yet I strode on austere;
    No hope could have no fear.                               60

  As I came through the desert thus it was,
  As I came through the desert: From the right
  A shape came slowly with a ruddy light;
  A woman with a red lamp in her hand,
  Bareheaded and barefooted on that strand;                   65
  O desolation moving with such grace!
  O anguish with such beauty in thy face!
    I fell as on my bier,
    Hope travailed with such fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,                   70
  As I came through the desert: I was twain,
  Two selves distinct that cannot join again;
  One stood apart and knew but could not stir,
  And watched the other stark in swoon and her;
  And she came on, and never turned aside,                    75
  Between such sun and moon and roaring tide:
    And as she came more near
    My soul grew mad with fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,
  As I came through the desert: Hell is mild                  80
  And piteous matched with that accursed wild;
  A large black sign was on her breast that bowed,
  A broad black band ran down her snow-white shroud;
  That lamp she held was her own burning heart,
  Whose blood-drops trickled step by step apart:              85
    The mystery was clear;
    Mad rage had swallowed fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,
  As I came through the desert: By the sea
  She knelt and bent above that senseless me;                 90
  Those lamp-drops fell upon my white brow there,
  She tried to cleanse them with her tears and hair;
  She murmured words of pity, love, and woe,
  Shee heeded not the level rushing flow:
    And mad with rage and fear,                               95
    I stood stonebound so near.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,
  As I came through the desert: When the tide
  Swept up to her there kneeling by my side,
  She clasped that corpse-like me, and they were borne        100
  Away, and this vile me was left forlorn;
  I

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