Light after Darkness

ONCE more the Night like some great dark drop-scene Eclipsing horrors for a brief entr'acte Descends, lead-weighty. Now the space between, Fringed with the eager eyes of men, is racked By spark-tailed lights, curvetting far and high Swift smoke-flecked coursers, raking the black sky.

And as each sinks in ashes grey, one more Rises to fall, and so through all the hours They strive like petty empires by the score, Each confident of its success and powers, And hovering at its zenith each will show Pale rigid faces, lying dead, below.