Paradise Lost by John Milton A dismal universal hiss, the sound
Of public scorn.

Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson Descending through the dismal night — a night
In which the bounds of heaven and earth were lost

Phantom of the Opera, The 2004 Why, you ask, was I bound and chained in this cold and dismal place? Not for any mortal sin but the wickedness of my abhorrent face!

Richard III by William Shakespeare O, I have pass'd a miserable night,
So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams,
That, as I am a christian-faithful man,
I would not spend another such a night,
Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days. —
So full of dismal terror was the time!

Macbeth by William Shakespeare I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.

We the Living by Ayn Rand Look around you: what you have done to society, you have done it first within your soul; one is the image of the other. This dismal wreckage, which is now your world, is the physical form of the treason you committed to your values, to your friends, to your defenders, to your future, to your country, to yourself.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough."
"Come, then," returned the nephew gaily. "What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough."

Bottom Richie: Well it just goes to show there's no escape for us that way is there eddie? if we even think to take on the dangers of the-m-mighty pacific (pause)(the audience cheer)
Richie:....Fish are fucking frisky tonight! if we even think of taking on the mighty pacific (audience murmurs) i haven't finished yet! we'd almost certainly trip over a few little bits of wire (waits for audiences response which is dismal)
Eddie: Yeeeees...or get a papercut

The Sherlock Holmes Series of Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle Hence the cocaine. I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime is commonplace, existence is commonplace, and no qualities save those which are commonplace have any function upon earth.

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez "...there's just a time to pull yourself out of the muddy gloom that sucks at your feet and holds you under the delusion that this is the only kind of attention there is to receive. There is a time to just pack your bag full of a deadly arsenal of weapons and just shake off the dismal robe that shrouds you. Well...perhaps YOU shouldn't go about it that way...No, you probably shouldn't. But you'll be seeing somebody who does. Kids, don't do this at home...unless you're not planning on blaming me (in which case, GO TO IT. We need more things like this on the news.)