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Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  Edmund Ollier (1827–1886)

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

II. A Dream

Edmund Ollier (1827–1886)

A MAN stood on a barren mountain-peak

In the night, and cried, “O world of heavy gloom!

O sunless world! O universal tomb!

Blind, cold, mechanic sphere, wherein I seek

In vain for Life and Love, till Hope grows weak,

And falters towards Chaos! Vast, blank doom!

Huge darkness in a narrow prison-room!

Thou art dead,—dead!” Yet, ere he ceased to speak,

Across the level ocean, in the East,

The moon-dawn grew; and all that mountain’s side

Rose, newly-born from empty dusk. Fields, trees,

And deep glen-hollows, as the light increased,

Seemed vital; and from heaven, bare and wide,

The moon’s white soul looked over lands and seas.