A winter's night

The pale moon shining from a pallid sky Lit half the street, and over half she laid Her folded mantle; through the dark-browed shade White windows glittered, each a watchful eye. The dim wet pavement lit irregularly With shimmering streaks of gaslight, faint and frayed, Shone luminous green where sheets of glass displayed Long breadths of faded blinds mechanically. the night was very still; above, below, No sound, no breath, no change in anything; Only, across the squares of damp lit street, Shooting a mocking double from his feet, With vague uncertain steps went to and fro A solitary shadow wandering. Arthur symon  When this poem was written, street lights were a very new technology and fairly rare. This poem is about the strange new nighttime world that is now illuminated by these lights. It mentions the previous source of nighttime light the moon and how now it only lights the parts of the street not in the gas light areas. Also there is a man walking alone at night which was uncommon before street lights because of street crime. And finally the man is looking at illuminated windows and the street lights not the moon or the sun, this is because the new technology and illumination down here on earth has won this mans attention away from the infinite illumination of the stars.