To James Thomson, Author of "The City of Dreadful Night", 2

No tears of mine shall fall upon thy face;
Whatever City thou hast gained, at last.
Better it is than that where thy feet passed
So many times, such weary nights and days.
Those journeying feet knew all its inmost ways;
Where shapes and shadows of dread things were cast.
There moved thy soul, profoundly dark and vast.
There did thy voice its hymn of anguish raise.

Thou wouldst have left that City of great Night,
Yet travelled its dark mazes, all in vain;
But one way leads from it, which found aright.
Who goes by it may not return again.
There didst thou grope thy way, through thy long pain;
Hast thou, outside, found any world of light?