Dusk and the Mirror
DUSK AND THE MIRROR by ISAAC ROSENBERG
Where the room seems pondering,
Shadowy hovering,
Pictured walls and dove-dim ceiling,
Edgeless, lost and spectral,
In a quaint half farewell
Away the things familiar fall
In some limbo to a spell.
Mutation of slipped moment
When nothing and solid is blent.
O! dusk palpitant!
Prank fantastical!
You hide and steal from morning
What you give back from hiding,
You prank before the dawning
And run from her frail chiding,
And all my household Gods
When he who worships nods
You tweak and pinch and hide
And dabble under your side
To drop upon the shores
Of an old tomorrow
Shut with the same old doors
Of sleep and shame and sorrow.
But naked you have left
One jewel, dripping still
From plundering plashless fingers.
Lying in a cleft
Of your own surging-bosomed hill
It dreams of dreams bereft
And warm dishevelled singers,
Safe from your placeless will.
Or you are like a tree now,
And that is like a lake,
Sinister to thee now
Its glimmer is awake
Like vague undrowning boughs
Above the pool
You float your gloom in its low light
Where Narcissian augurs browse,
Dreaming from its cool
Apparition a fear;
Behind the wall of hours you hear
The tread of the arch light.
| Title |
Dusk and the Mirror
|
|---|---|
| Author |
Rosenberg, Isaac (1890-1918)
|
| Item date |
1977
|
| Content | |
| Copyright |
The Isaac Rosenberg Literary Estate. Preliminaries and editorial matter omitted.
|
| Digital repository | |
| Repository name |
ProQuest
|
| Repository address URL | |
| First line |
Where the room seems ponder-
|
| Publication source |
The Collected Poems of Isaac Rosenberg
|
| Publication editor |
Bottomley, Gordon and Harding, Denys
|
| Publishers |
Chatto & Windus Ltd.
|
| Publication place |
London
|
Collection
Citation
“Dusk and the Mirror,” by Rosenberg, Isaac (1890-1918). The Isaac Rosenberg Literary Estate. Preliminaries and editorial matter omitted. via First World War Poetry Digital Archive, accessed May 21, 2024, http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/3269.
Permitted Use
This item is available for non-commercial educational use under the terms of the Jisc Model Licence. Further details available at: http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/permitteduse
