Darkness

by Arthur Hugh Clough — a poem card from Justes Mots

A brief, darkly philosophical meditation on the absence of light and truth in human existence—the poem mourns that no clear meaning or illumination emerges from life's passage. Clough's sparse, classical structure amplifies its existential despair. Suitable for those confronting profound loss or seeking to express metaphysical darkness.

But that from slow dissolving pomps of dawn
No verity of slowly strengthening light
Early or late hath issued; that the day
Scarce-shown, relapses rather, self-withdrawn,
Back to the glooms of ante-natal night,
For this, O human beings, mourn we may.…

Themes: sympathy · grief · reflection