UP creaks the car; he leaves his ghastly dream Of flickering, strange lights and caverns gloomed, Grim fears of death-damp and the rumblings deep Of an inferno whence the damned come back Daily to taste of Paradise, before The Devil bids them down; up creaks the car Disgorging men and mud indifferently. How sweet the lingering sun, and yonder, look, The cabin lights are beckoning fondly, where Warm love awaits him; for a little space He's no machine but human, and his God Our God, -- no mid-earth Devil, but a power Benign and near. . . . But now the nether pit Reclaims these children of a double world, And once again Life is a nightmare dream. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CRYSTAL CABINET by WILLIAM BLAKE THE SNOW-STORM by RALPH WALDO EMERSON SATIRES OF CIRCUMSTANCE: 9. AT THE ALTAR-RAIL by THOMAS HARDY THE FALLOW DEER AT THE LONELY HOUSE by THOMAS HARDY STANZAS; HOOD'S LAST POEM by THOMAS HOOD |