Bells of London

As when an eager boy, I heard to-night
The selfsame bells clash out upon the air,
It seemed not then a city of despair.
But a fair home of promise and delight, —
This London that now breaks me with its might.
Is this the end of all sweet dreams and fair '
Is this the bitter answer to my prayer?
The bells deride me from the belfry's height, —

"We clamored to thee in the old, far years.
And all the sorrows of thy life forecast;
And now, with eyes uncomforted by tears,
And dry and seared as by a furnace -blast.
Thou walkest vainly where no hope appears.
Between veiled future and disastrous past."