Page:The torrent and The night before.djvu/30

 And as of old, when Helicon Trembled and swayed with rapture vast (Long centuries have come and gone),

This ancient plain, when night comes on, Shakes to a ghostly battle-blast, Since Persia fell at Marathon.—

But into soundless Acheron The glory of Greek shame was cast: Long centuries have come and gone,

The suns of Hellas have all shone, The first has fallen to the last:— Since Persia fell at Marathon, Long centuries have come and gone.

THOMAS HOOD man who cloaked his bitterness within This winding-sheet of puns and pleasantries, God never gave to look with common eyes Upon a world of anguish and of sin:— His brother was the branded man of Lynn; And there are woven with his jollities The nameless and eternal tragedies That render hope and hopelessness akin.

We laugh, and crown him; but anon we feel A still chord sorrow swept,—a weird unrest; And thin dim shadows home to midnight steal, As if the very ghost of mirth were dead— As if the joys of time to dreams had fled, Or sailed away with Ines to the West.

FOR A BOOK BY THOMAS HARDY searching feet, through dark circuitous ways, I plunged and stumbled; round me, far and near,