Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TEMPEST-TOST, by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TEMPEST-TOST, by                    
First Line: In a flash the rain roars down
Last Line: There's a whispering promise-refrain.
Subject(s): Love; Prayer; Rain; Salvation; Storms


IN a flash the rain roars down,
Tearing a way to the ground
With a splashing, unmusical sound,
With a quivering, quick rebound,—
Striking each dusty town
Into a gloom of the flood,
Into a chill of the blood,
At the ravenous roar of the rain.

The thunder struggles for breath,
Beaten with moanings of ire,
Mad with a rebel desire,—
Lightning, its heart of fire,
Goads it to desperate death,—
Fear follows everywhere,
On the earth and the sea and the air,
Forebodings of terror and pain.

Then the voice of the sea outcries:—
"All my waves have in anger arisen,
Scorning my bosom a prison,
Lashing me while I listen
To the prayer as of one who dies:
'O Infinite Love, come thou,
Save me and pilot me now!'
And straight there is silence again."

Low earth-murmurs kindle and loom,
And its secrets have thickened the sky,
Till it sweeps them before the fierce eye
Of the hurricane hurrying by.
Clash all the drivings of doom,—
Storm! and the world in collapse,—
Despair! were it not that perhaps
There's a whispering promise-refrain.





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