Page:The city of dreadful night - and other poems (IA cityofdreadfulni00thomrich).pdf/38

 While air of Space and Time's full river flow The mill must blindly whirl unresting so: It may be wearing out, but who can know?

Man might know one thing were his sight less dim; That it whirls not to suit his petty whim, That it is quite indifferent to him.

Nay, does it treat him harshly as he saith? It grinds him some slow years of bitter breath, Then grinds him back into eternal death."

It is full strange to him who hears and feels, When wandering there in some deserted street, The booming and the jar of ponderous wheels, The trampling clash of heavy ironshod feet: Who in this Venice of the Black Sea rideth? Who in this city of the stars abideth To buy or sell as those in daylight sweet?

The rolling thunder seems to fill the sky As it comes on; the horses snort and strain, The harness jingles, as it passes by; The hugeness of an overburthened wain: