<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=37128" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Sunken City</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">I walked beside a quiet sea,<br> At starlight, while the west was gray<br> And clear, though faint and far away;<br>Through the stilled water, forth me,<br>Voices of bells came dreamily;<br> No breeze more manifest than they.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Some say a thousand years ago<br> There throve a city on an isle<br> Beyond the headland, mile on mile,<br>Which, in a night of fear and woe,<br>Sank in the glassy depth below—<br> Sank tower and dwelling, beam and tile.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And now, when twinkling skies are clear,<br> Withing the sunken city there,<br> The sad ghosts ring their past despair<br>Out on the mermen’s atmosphere—<br>Ring loudly all, that life may hear<br> Dead sadness stir the ample air.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To me this city is not strange;<br> I feel familiar with each gate,<br> Each tower and street unfortunate,<br>And, wheresoe’er I dwell or range,<br>Its mem’ry-picture does not change,<br> Limned by its stern destroyer, Fate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Its labarums, on roof and mast,<br> Swam in the light with silken arms,<br> No wrathful wars, nor dread alarms,<br>The streeted splendor overcast;<br>But, on a throne of gems amassed,<br> Sat Pleasure with Circean charma.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet came the hour of loss and fear.<br> The city sank, tower, wall, and mart,<br> Its brittle site was rent apart,<br>And all went down that once was dear;<br>But oft, in loneliness, I hear<br> Its sunken bells ring in my heart.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I beat no note of vain regret.<br> My hope-wrought city of To-be.<br> Youth seen, upon the future’s sea,<br>Has vanished, and its sun is set;<br>But broader and diviner yet,<br> The city of Reality.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For, though its ways be paved with stone,<br> And hard and rough to toiling feet,<br> And though, in the accustomed street,<br>No blazoned garniture is known,<br>By Fate, God’s hand, His will is shown,<br> And love makes humble service sweet.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Henry+Abbey">Henry Abbey</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=37128" data-title="The Sunken City de Henry Abbey" data-description="I walked beside a quiet sea,/ At starlight, while the west was gray/ And clear, though faint and far away;/Through the stilled water, forth me,/Voices of bells came dreamily;/ No breeze more manifest than they./Some say a thousand years ago/ There..."></div> </div> </div>

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