Luminous Decay
justinehrlich

Justin Ehrlich was born in Essex in 1985 and has a degree in Philosophy. He writes poetry and short fiction dealing with themes of death, insanity and the supernatural.

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2012 (29)
2011 (88)

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28 Aug 2011
August 28th, 4:20am 0 comments

Christina Rossetti 1830 - 1894

Cobwebs

It is a land with neither night nor day, 
Nor heat nor cold, nor any wind, nor rain, 
Nor hills nor valleys; but one even plain 
Stretches thro' long unbroken miles away: 
While thro' the sluggish air a twilight grey 
Broodeth; no moons or seasons wax and wane, 
No ebb and flow are there among the main, 
No bud-time no leaf-falling there for aye, 
No ripple on the sea, no shifting sand, 
No beat of wings to stir the stagnant space, 
And loveless sea: no trace of days before, 
No guarded home, no time-worn restingplace 
No future hope no fear forevermore.

Painting1_15
Caspar David Friedrich - The Woman with the Cobweb

 

Filed under Caspar David Friedrich Christina Rossetti Cobwebs Poetry The Woman with the Cobweb

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27 Aug 2011
August 27th, 4:19am 0 comments

William Ernest Henley 1849 - 1902

*I have cut the final stanza and believe it an improvement on the original.

A Desolate Shore  

A desolate shore,
The sinister seduction of the Moon,
The menace of the irreclaimable Sea.

Flaunting, tawdry and grim,
From cloud to cloud along her beat,
Leering her battered and inveterate leer,
She signals where he prowls in the dark alone,
Her horrible old man,
Mumbling old oaths and warming
His villainous old bones with villainous talk -
The secrets of their grisly housekeeping
Since they went out upon the pad
In the first twilight of self-conscious Time:
Growling, hideous and hoarse,
Tales of unnumbered Ships,
Goodly and strong, Companions of the Advance,
In some vile alley of the night
Waylaid and bludgeoned -
Dead.

Deep cellared in primeval ooze,
Ruined, dishonoured, spoiled,
They lie where the lean water-worm
Crawls free of their secrets, and their broken sides
Bulge with the slime of life. Thus they abide,
Thus fouled and desecrate,
The summons of the Trumpet, and the while
These Twain, their murderers,
Unravined, imperturbable, unsubdued,
Hang at the heels of their children--She aloft
As in the shining streets,
He as in ambush at some accomplice door.

Painting1_14
Caspar David Friedrich - Seashore with Shipwreck by Moonlight 2
Filed under A Desolate Shore Caspar David Friedrich Edited version Poetry Seashore with Shipwreck by Moonlight 2 William Ernest Henley

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