| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Impression de Nuit: London | | By Alfred Douglas (1870–1945) |
| | | SEE what a mass of gems the city wears | |
| Upon her broad live bosom! row on row | |
| Rubies and emeralds and amethysts glow. | |
| See! that huge circle, like a necklace, stares | |
| With thousands of bold eyes to heaven, and dares | 5 |
| The golden stars to dim the lamps below, | |
| And in the mirror of the mire I know | |
| The moon has left her image unawares. | |
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| That ’s the great town at night: I see her breasts, | |
| Prick’d out with lamps they stand like huge black towers, | 10 |
| I think they move! I hear her panting breath. | |
| And that ’s her head where the tiara rests. | |
| And in her brain, through lanes as dark as death, | |
| Men creep like thoughts … The lamps are like pale flowers. | | | | |
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