O'er this huge town, rife with intestine wars, 
Whence as from monstrous sacrificial shrines 
Pillars of smoke climb heavenward, Night inclines 
Black brows majestical with glimmering stars. 
Her dewy silence soothes life's angry jars: 
And like a mother's wan white face, who pines 
Above her children's turbulent ways, so shines 
The moon athwart the narrow cloudy bars. 

Now toiling multitudes that hustling crush 
Each other in the fateful strife for breath, 
And, hounded on by diverse hungers, rush 
Across the prostrate ones that groan beneath, 
Are swathed within the universal hush, 
As life exchanges semblances with death.