Poem by Eugene Gladstone O'Neill

Nocturne

The sunset gun booms out in hollow roar
Night breathes upon the waters of the bay
The river lies, a symphony in grey,
Melting in shadow on the further shore.

A sullen coal barge tugs its anchor chain
A shadow sinister, with one faint light
Flickering wanly in the dim twilight,
It lies upon the harbor like a stain.

Silence. Then through the stillness rings
The fretful echo of a seagull's scream,
As if one cried who sees within a dream
Deep rooted sorrow in the heart of things.

The cry that Sorrow knows and would complain
And impotently struggle to express --
Some secret shame, some hidden bitterness --
Yet evermore must sing the same refrain.

Silence once more. The air seems in a swoon
Beneath the heavens' thousand opening eyes
While from the far horizon's edge arise
The first faint silvery tresses of the moon. 

1. Villanelle of Ye Young Poet's First Villanelle to His Ladye and Ye Difficulties Thereof
2. Even As a Child
3. A Regular Sort of a Guy
4. Submarine
5. To Winter

Abram Ryan Nocturne ("I sit to-night by the firelight")

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