II

Under Twilight Brooding Dim

Onward led the road again

Through the sad uncolored plain

Under twilight brooding dim,

And along the utmost rim

Wall and rampart risen to sight

Cast a shadow not of night,

And beyond them seemed to glow

Bonfires lighted long ago.

And my dark conductor broke

Silence at my side and spoke,

Saying, “You conjecture well:

Yonder is the gate of hell.”

—A. E. Housman,
“Hell Gate”