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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A SUDDEN CHASM OF GHASTLY LIGHT, by EMILY JANE BRONTE Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography Alternate Author Name(s): Bell, Ellis Subject(s): Battles | |||
A sudden chasm of ghastly light āàYawned in the city's reeling wall, And a long thundering through the night āàProclaimed our triumph-Tyrdarum's fall. The shrieking wind sank mute and mild, āàThe smothering snow-clouds rolled away; And cold-how cold! wan moonlight smiled āàWhere those black ruins smouldering lay. 'Twas over-all the battle's madness, āàThe bursting fires, the cannon's roar, The yells, the groans, the frenzied gladness, āàThe death the danger warmed no more. In plundered churches piled with dead āàThe heavy charger neighed for food, The wounded soldier laid his head āà'Neath roofless chambers splashed with blood. I could not sleep through that wild siege, āàMy heart had fiercely burned and bounded; The outward tumult seemed to assuage āàThe inward tempest it surrounded. But dreams like this I cannot bear, āàAnd silence whets the fang of pain; I felt the full flood of despair āàReturning to my breast again. My couch lay in a ruined Hall, āàWhose windows looked on the minster-yard, Where chill, chill whiteness covered all, āàBoth stone and urn and withered sward. The shattered glass let in the air āàAnd with it came a wandering moan, A sound unutterably drear, āàThat made me shrink to be alone. One black yew-tree grew just below- āàI thought its boughs so sad might wail; Their ghostly fingers flecked with snow, āàRattled against an old vault's rail. I listened-no; 'twas life that still āàLingered in some deserted heart: O God! what caused the shuddering shrill, āàThat anguished, agonising start? An undefined, an awful dream, āàA dream of what had been before; A memory whose blighting beam āàWas flitting o'er me evermore. A frightful feeling frenzy born- āàI hurried down the dark oak stair; I reached the door whose hinges torn āàFlung streaks of moonshine here and there. I pondered not, I drew the bar, āàAn icy glory caught mine eye, From that wide heaven where every star āàStared like a dying memory. And there the great Cathedral rose, āàDiscrowned but most majestic so, It looked down in serene repose āàOn its own realm of buried woe. 'Tis evening now, the sun decends āàIn golden glory down the sky; The city's murmur softly blends āàWith zephyrs breathing gently by. And yet it seems a dreary moor, āàA dark, October moor to me; And black the piles of rain-clouds lour āàAthwart heaven's stormy canopy. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AH! WHY, BECAUSE THE DAZZLING SUN by EMILY JANE BRONTE ALL HUSHED AND STILL WITHIN THE HOUSE by EMILY JANE BRONTE IF GRIEF FOR GRIEF CAN TOUCH THEE by EMILY JANE BRONTE IN SUMMER'S MELLOW MIDNIGHT by EMILY JANE BRONTE LONG NEGLECT HAS WORN AWAY by EMILY JANE BRONTE LOUD WITHOUT THE WIND WAS ROARING by EMILY JANE BRONTE NO COWARD SOUL IS MINE by EMILY JANE BRONTE THAT WIND I USED TO HEAR IT SWELLING by EMILY JANE BRONTE THE NIGHT IS DARKENING ROUND ME by EMILY JANE BRONTE A DAY DREAM by EMILY JANE BRONTE |
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