LONDON VISIONS - PREFACE - THESE poem s have been colleAed from two little volumes published under the same title in 1895 and I 898 from a volume of poems printed by Mr. Daniel at Oxford in 1895, and from Par phyrion and other Poems, published in I 898. To these are added a certain number of unpublished pieces, more recently written. Little satisfied as I am with the verse which forms this colle ion, composed at various times, and some of it now a long while ago, I have thought it better to leave it as it was written, save for a few corre ions and omissions. 1 should wish that the whole, now rearranged, should be regarded as a single corporate poem, and no one piece apart from the rest. Some, I feel, are too insignificant to stand alone, yet add perhaps some slight touch to an aggregate effeEt. No. VI is reprinted from The Saturday Review, No. VII from The Academy. -- CONTENTS -- PAGE I. RED NIGHT . . I 11. THE L ITTLED ANCERS. . 6 111. FEBRUAR T Y W ILIG . H T . 7 IV. THE STATUES . . 8 V. NARCISSU . S . . . 11 VI. THE B UILDERS . . 12 VII. THE D ESTROY . E R . . I4 VIII. THE G OLDENG ALLER A Y T SAINT PAULS . . . . 15 IX. THE D RAY. . . I7 X. THE R AG-PICKER . . . 18 XI. A WOMA . N . 20 XII. THE ST ORM . . . 22 XIII. THE PA RALYT . IC . 24 XIV. THE SL EEPERS . . 25 XV. MAY NIGHT 29 XVI. DEPTFORD . . 30 XVII. THE B ATHERS . 33 XVIII. THE E SCAPE . . 36 XIX. MIDSUMMNERO ON . 41 XX. ELEONOR D A U S A E S MAGD . A 42 vi i . . . 1 111 CONTENTS PAG L XXI. IHE CONVICT - 44 XXII. MARTHA 46 XXIII. ALTGUST. 54 XXIV. THE FI RE . - 55 XXV. To A DERELICT . 59 XXVI. - RAFALGAR SQUARE . 62 XXVII. THE R EFCIRMER . 65 XXVIII. WHITECHA H PE IG L H R OAD . 68 XXIX. IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM 7 XXX. THE T HRESH . O LD 73 XXXI. THEK OAD M ENDERS . . 80 XXXII. NOVEMBER . 83 XXXIIL. THE M OTHER 84 XXXIV. THE T OY-SEL . L ER . S5 XXXV. THE B IRCH T RE . E . 86 XXXVI. FOG . 87 XXXVII. MOTHE O R F EXILES . 83 XXXVIII. JOHN WINTER 90 XXXIX. SONGS Q F THE WORLD UN BORN 9 4. LONDON VISIONS RED NIGHT ROLLE i D n a smouldering mist, wrapt in an ardent cloud, Over ridged roofs, over the buried roar That comes and goes Where shadowv London mutters at the core Of meeting strkets interminably ploughed Through blackness built and steepled and im mense With felt, unfeatured, waste magnificence, The night shudders and glows. Ensanguined skies, that lower and lift and change Each instant sullen with a spectral rose Upon the towered horizon b t more near A lurid vapour, throbbing up the gloom, Glares like a furnace fume Exhausted pallors hover faint and strange Dull fiery flushes melt and reappear While over all in lofty glimpses far Spaces of silence and blue dream disclose The still eye of a star. I B RED NIGHT Muffled in burning air, so dumb Above this monstrous ever-trem bling hum, What hide you, heavens What sombl-e presences, What powers pass over What dim-legioned host, What peopled pageantries, With gleam of nrms and robes that crimsoned trail, In silent triumph or huge mockery hail 0, is it the tumultuous-memoried ghost Of some lost city, fabulous and fra l, Stoops over London Susa, Thebes, or Tyre, Rebuilded out of mist and fire No, rather to its secret self revealed The soul of London burning in the skies L3 Her desolations and her majesties There, there is ali unsealed Terr-or and hope, ecstasy and despair Their apparition yield, LVhile still throigh kindled street and shadowy square The faces pass, the uncounted faces crowd,-Rages, lamentings, joys, in masks of flesh concealed. Down a grimed lane, around a bare-benched room, Seven shapes of men are sunken, heads upon hands bowed...