clew's reviews: a book log

The City of Dreadful Night, James Thomson

"The city is not ruinous, although
  Great ruins of an unremembered past,
With others of a few short years ago
  More sad, are found within its precincts vast.
The street-lamps always burn; but scarce a casement         40
In house or palace front from roof to basement
  Doth glow or gleam athwart the mirk air cast.

The street-lamps burn amid the baleful glooms,
  Amidst the soundless solitudes immense
Of ranged mansions dark and still as tombs.                 45
  The silence which benumbs or strains the sense
Fulfils with awe the soul's despair unweeping:
Myriads of habitants are ever sleeping,
  Or dead, or fled from nameless pestilence!

Pure quill. Perhaps someone will illustrate it, or at least use it in extensive chapter headings for Felix Gilman's next novel.

Project Gutenberg file#1238 The City of Dreadful Night