Even as a dragon's eye that feels the stress Of a bedimming sleep, or as a lamp Sullenly glaring through sepulchral damp, So burns yon Taper 'mid a black recess Of mountains, silent, dreary, motionless: The lake below reflects it not; the sky Muffled in clouds, affords no company To mitigate and cheer its loneliness. Yet, round the body of that joyless Thing Which sends so far its melancholy light, Perhaps are seated in domestic ring A gay society with faces bright, Conversing, reading, laughing;--or they sing, While hearts and voices in the song unite. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DIBDIN'S GHOST by EUGENE FIELD MOONRISE by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS YOUTH by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TROY TOWN by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI THE SHAVEN BEAUTY by YUSUF IBN HARUN AL-RAMADI ON A VOLUME OF ANONYNOUS POEMS ENTITLED A MASQUE OF POETS by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |