Город страшной ночи

VI

  I sat forlornly by the river-side,
    And watched the bridge-lamps glow like golden stars
  Above the blackness of the swelling tide,

    Down which they struck rough gold in ruddier bars;
  And heard the heave and plashing of the flow
  Against the wall a dozen feet below.

  Large elm-trees stood along that river-walk;
    And under one, a few steps from my seat,
  I heard strange voices join in stranger talk,

    Although I had not heard approaching feet:
  These bodiless voices in my waking dream
  Flowed dark words blending with sombre stream:—

  And you have after all come back; come back.
  I was about to follow on your track.
  And you have failed: our spark of hope is black.

  That I have failed is proved by my return:
  The spark is quenched, nor ever more will burn,
  But listen; and the story you shall learn.

  I reached the portal common spirits fear,
  And read the words above it, dark yet clear,
  "Leave hope behind, all ye who enter here:"

  And would have passed in, gratified to gain
  That positive eternity of pain
  Instead of this insufferable inane.

  A demon warder clutched me, Not so fast;
  First leave your hopes behind!—But years have passed
  Since I left all behind me, to the last:

  You cannot count for hope, with all your wit,
  This bleak despair that drives me to the Pit:
  How could I seek to enter void of it?

  He snarled, What thing is this which apes a soul,
  And would find entrance to our gulf of dole
  Without the payment of the settled toll?

  Outside the gate he showed an open chest:
  Here pay their entrance fees the souls unblest;
  Cast in some hope, you enter with the rest.

  This is Pandora's box; whose lid shall shut,
  And Hell-gate too, when hopes have filled it; but
  They are so thin that it will never glut.

  I stood a few steps backwards, desolate;
  And watched the spirits pass me to their fate,
  And fling off hope, and enter at the gate.

  When one casts off a load he springs upright,
  Squares back his shoulders, breathes will all his might,
  And briskly paces forward strong and light:

  But these, as if they took some burden, bowed;
  The whole frame sank; however strong and proud
  Before, they crept in quite infirm and cowed.

  And as they passed me, earnestly from each
  A morsel of his hope I did beseech,
  To pay my entrance; but all mocked my speech.

  No one would cede a little of his store,
  Though knowing that in instants three or four
  He must resign the whole for evermore.

  So I returned.  Our destiny is fell;
  For in this Limbo we must ever dwell,
  Shut out alike from heaven and Earth and Hell.

  The other sighed back, Yea; but if we grope
  With care through all this Limbo's dreary scope,
  We yet may pick up some minute lost hope;

  And sharing it between us, entrance win,
  In spite of fiends so jealous for gross sin:
  Let us without delay our search begin.