Fog

Magically awakened to a strange, brown night The streets lie cold. A hush of heavy gloom Dulls the noise of the wheels to a murmur dead: Near and sudden the passing figures loom; And out of darkness steep on startled sight The topless walls in apparition emerge. Nothing revealing but their own thin flames, The rayless lamps burn faint and bleared and red: Link--boys' cries, and the shuffle of horses led, Pierce the thick air; and like a distant dirge, Melancholy horns wail from the shrouded Thames. Long the blind morning hooded the dumb town; Till lo! in an instant winds arose, and the air Lifted: at once, from a cold and spectral sky Appears the sun, and laughs in mockery down On groping travellers far from where they deem, In unconjectured roads; the dwindled stream Of traffic in slow confusion crawling by: The baffled hive of helpless man laid bare.