DAZZLED with watching how the swift fire fled Along the dribbling roof, I turned my head; When lo, upraised beneath the lighted cloud The illumed unconscious faces of the crowd! An old grey face in lovely bloom upturned, The ancient rapture and the dream returned! A crafty face wondering simply up! That dying face near the communion cup! The experienced face, now venturous and rash, The scheming eyes hither and thither flash! That common trivial face made up of needs, Now pale and recent from triumphal deeds! The hungry tramp with indolent gloating stare, The beggar in glory and released from care. A mother slowly burning with bare breast, Yet her consuming child close to her prest! That prosperous citizen in anguish dire, Beseeching heaven from purgatorial fire! Wonderful souls by sudden flame betrayed, I saw; then through the darkness went afraid. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PRAISE FOR AN URN; IN MEMORIAM: ERNEST NELSON by HAROLD HART CRANE THE BATTLEFIELD by EMILY DICKINSON GOD'S GRANDEUR by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 43 by ALFRED TENNYSON AGAMEMNON: THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. CHORUS by AESCHYLUS WOO NOT THE WORLD by MUHAMMAD AL-MU'TAMID II LINES TO ROBERT ALDERSON UPON HIS DEPARTURE FROM WARRINGTON by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |