Possible Clues:

• Dismal (literary)
• John Keats's "In ___ nighted December"
• Unfinished flat is cheerless, as the writers see it
• Melancholic
• Depressing, poetically
• Shelley's dismal daughter back
• Depressingly bleak, in poetry
• Dull, but finally played minster organ
• Depressingly dull or repetitive
• It's dismal in poetry putting attention on darker edges