The House Of Dust: Part 01: 08: The white fog creeps from the cold sea over the city by Conrad Aiken

The white fog creeps from the cold sea over the city,

Over the pale grey tumbled towers,—

And settles among the roofs, the pale grey walls.

Along damp sinuous streets it crawls,

Curls like a dream among the motionless trees

And seems to freeze.

The fog slips ghostlike into a thousand rooms,

Whirls over sleeping faces,

Spins in an atomy dance round misty street lamps;

And blows in cloudy waves over open spaces . . .

And one from his high window, looking down,

Peers at the cloud-white town,

And thinks its island towers are like a dream . . .

It seems an enormous sleeper, within whose brain

Laborious shadows revolve and break and gleam.