ENNUI

Under a low and sullen sky,

Frowned on by lone winds that moan by

And palely sick for light from high

Till the landscape's soul doth sigh forever,

        Forever sigh,

A black and calmness‑haunted river,

That doth a town from itself sever,

Runs with an inner fear and shiver

Like a dim fate forever nigh,

        Nigher forever.

Ay, through that landscape lapsed from dream

Into a horrid truth doth gleam

That self‑absorbed, self‑empty stream

That bears a dream of dreams' emotion

        To emotion's dream!

Runs from a land whence is no motion

Towards a possible far ocean;

And they, whose eyes anguished sans motion

Bathe in it, take emotion's dream

        For dreams' emotion.