One gas-jet glimmering there alone;

Above, all fog; below, all inky flood;

For subject—it had none.

One showed blue chaos flecked with falling gold.

Like Danaë's tower in dark;

A painter's splash-board might more meaning hold

Than this æsthetic lark.

And one, a phantom form with limbs most lank,

Adumbrated in ink and soot;

The Genius of Smudge, with spectral shank