Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RAIN REVERY, by PERCY MACKAYE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RAIN REVERY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the lone of night by the pattering tree
Last Line: Rain on the roof.
Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Melodies; Poetry & Poets; Rhyme; Singing & Singers


IN the lone of night by the pattering tree
I sat alone with Poetry —
With Poetry, my old shy friend,
And his tenuous shadow seemed to blend —
Beyond the lampshine on the sill —
With the mammoth shadow of the hill,
And his breath fell soft on the pool-dark pane
With the murmurous, murmuring muffled hoof
Of the rain, the rain
The rain on the roof.

In the vast of night and its vacancy
I prayed aloud to Poetry,
And his luminous eyes grew large and dim
As my heart-pulse quickened to question him;
For out of that rumbling rhymeless rune
He only might know, by a sense atune,
To unravel the anguish, and render vain
The remorseless will that wove the woof
Of the rain, the rain
The rain on the roof.

So I cried: "What mute conspiracy
Have you made with the night, O Poetry?
Lover and friend of my warm doorway,
Do you crouch there too on the storm-soaked clay?
Did you creep indoors when that gust of damp
Raised the dead moon-moths round my lamp
And the wan flame guttered? — Hark, again!
Do you ride there — so close, so aloof —
With the rain, the rain
The rain on the roof?

"Ah, what of the rapture and melody
We might have wrought, dear Poetry!
Imagined tower and dream-built shrine,
Must they crumble in dark like this pale lampshine?
Our dawn-flecked meadows lyric-shrill,
Shall they lie as dumb as the gloom-drenched hill?
Our song-voiced lovers! — Shall none remain?" —
Under the galloping, gusty hoof
Answered the rain, rain
Rain on the roof.





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