Snodgrass politely welcomed the gentleman, elegantly designated as '
Dismal Jemmy'; and calling for brandy-and-water, in imitation of the remainder of the company, seated themselves at the table.
I thought it had the most
dismal trees in it, and the most
dismal sparrows, and the most
dismal cats, and the most
dismal houses (in number half a dozen or so), that I had ever seen.
Hunt's followers, enfeebled and rendered imaginative of horrors by the
dismal scenes and sufferings through which they had passed.
By the lakes that thus outspread Their lone waters, lone and dead, - Their sad waters, sad and chilly With the snows of the lolling lily, - By the mountains - near the river Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever, - By the grey woods, - by the swamp Where the toad and the newt encamp, - By the
dismal tarns and pools Where dwell the Ghouls, - By each spot the most unholy - In each nook most melancholy, - There the traveller meets aghast Sheeted Memories of the Past - Shrouded forms that start and sigh As they pass the wanderer by - White-robed forms of friends long given, In agony, to the Earth - and Heaven.
Whosoever had gone out of Fleet Street into the Temple at the date of this history, and had wandered disconsolate about the Temple until he stumbled on a
dismal churchyard, and had looked up at the
dismal windows commanding that churchyard until at the most
dismal window of them all he saw a
dismal boy, would in him have beheld, at one grand comprehensive swoop of the eye, the managing clerk, junior clerk, common-law clerk, conveyancing clerk, chancery clerk, every refinement and department of clerk, of Mr Mortimer Lightwood, erewhile called in the newspapers eminent solicitor.
It was nearly in the heart of the town, yet by night it was as gruesome a place as the most
dismal of human moods could crave.
God willed, no doubt, to open to this elect the treasures of eternal beatitude, at this hour when other men tremble with the idea of being severely received by the Lord, and cling to this life they know, in the dread of the other life of which they get but merest glimpses by the
dismal murky torch of death.
To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind moan and watching for day through the whole long weary night; to listen to the falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee of some old barn or rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are
dismal things--but not so
dismal as the wandering up and down where shelter is, and beds and sleepers are by thousands; a houseless rejected creature.
Vast, vast -- an endless wilderness of sand; A stream crawls through its tawny banks; the hills Encompass it; where in the
dismal dusk Moan the last sighs of sunset.
There is no mistaking that sensation, so
dismal, so tormenting and so subtle, so full of unhappiness and unrest.
The Beaver, who happened to hear the remark, Protested, with tears in its eyes, That not even the rapture of hunting the Snark Could atone for that
dismal surprise!
I found a
dismal letter from him on my arrival here, full of complaints of his wife and sister, and lamentations on the cruelty of his fate.