This classic Victorian poem, which depicts a haunting vision of the modern city, has long been unavailable as a complete text. The poem anticipated the modern age’s nightmare vision of the city as a place of loneliness, alienation and spiritual despair. In contrast to the late Victorian confidence all around him, Thomson dared to face the possibility that the universe was utterly indifferent to human affairs. The poem was published in instalments in 1874 and then in book form in 1880.