Out of the fog-banks dank and yellow,
As I groped like a soul alone,
The shadow lurched of a drunken fellow,
Blasphemous, ragged, and then was gone.
Swift the shape of a stranger-woman—
Soft-shod maidenhood? draggled quean?
Only I know it was something human—
Passed, and was as it had not been.
Claspèd lovers with footfall muffled
Faded by ere I caught their bloom,
Whimpering urchins unmothered shuffled
Up from the desolate murky womb.
Shadows on shadows the lone way haunted
Where one shadow the more, I stole,
Each with a soul I must take for granted—
But how to be aware of the soul?
Just the shapes of my fellow-creatures,
Dim and fitful as ghosts at dawn,
Lacking the life-pulse, void of features,
Self-encompassed, adrift, withdrawn.
Sisters! brothers! remote procession!
I would love and be loved of you,
Give myself for your whole possession,
Take yourselves as my human due:—
But my steps were as yours made noiseless
That none may know how we go and come:—
But you were all created voiceless
Even as I was fashioned dumb.
Each in his fogbound isolation
Who shall know how the other yearns?
Till some flash of a new Creation
Through this smoke with a clear flame burns,
And the world is man’s for resistless brotherhood
Of hands grown warm and of shining brows,
And the world is woman’s for mighty motherhood,
And life is lived in a common house.
Poem by Eleanor Farjeon
Meaning of the Poem ‘Fogbound‘ by Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon’s “Fogbound” is a haunting meditation on alienation, human disconnection, and the deep yearning for unity. Set in a literal and metaphorical fog, the speaker moves through a cityscape where figures emerge briefly – a drunk, a woman, lovers, children – and vanish just as quickly, spectral and unreachable. These fleeting encounters suggest the isolation of urban life, where people pass one another without true recognition or connection.
Though the speaker longs to love and be loved, to share in the fullness of human experience, they find themselves mute and unseen, as are all the others. The fog becomes a powerful metaphor for the barriers that separate us: emotional, social, even spiritual. Everyone moves alone, voiceless and withdrawn, their inner lives invisible.
Yet the poem ends in hope: a vision of a “new Creation” breaking through the fog with a “clear flame.” In this imagined future, isolation gives way to communion: brotherhood, motherhood, warmth, and shared life in a “common house.” Farjeon holds onto the belief that one day, human beings will truly see and embrace each other, and that the silence and shadows of the present will give way to love and light.
