The Yellow Book/Volume 1/Night on Curbar Edge

Night on Curbar Edge

by  "Author:William Watson (1858-1935)")

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1045136 — Night on Curbar Edge1894William Watson (1858-1935)

​Two Sonnets

By William Watson

 

​

II—Night on Curbar Edge, Derbyshire

No echo of man's life pursues my ears;
Nothing disputes this Desolation's reign;
Change comes not, this dread temple to profane,
Where time by æons reckons, not by years.
Its patient form one crag, sole-stranded, rears,
Type of whate'er is destined to remain
While yon still host encamped on Night's waste plain
Keeps armèd watch, a million quivering spears.

Hushed are the wild and wing'd lives of the moor;
The sleeping sheep nestle 'neath ruined wall,
Or unhewn stones in random concourse hurled:
Solitude, sleepless, listens at Fate's door;
And there is built and 'stablisht over all
Tremendous Silence, older than the world.