Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RAIN, by EDWARD BLISS REED


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RAIN, by                    
First Line: The april rain falls quietly, / with soft caress for bush and tree
Last Line: December rain, december rain.
Subject(s): Rain; Seasons; Spring; Water; Weather


The April rain falls quietly,
With soft caress for bush and tree,
And where the seeds lie buried deep
It sinks, to rouse them from their sleep.
It whispers to the earth "Prepare
The fragrant garlands for your hair;
Weave your bright dress of green, and now
Waken the leaves on every bough.
Call back the birds and bid them sing
In their ecstatic carolling
Of meadow blossoms, waving grain"—
The April rain, the April rain.

Within a city tenement
There lies a child; her strength is spent.
The sky, the very walls, the street
Shrivel this flower with cruel heat.
The fever burns; she moans and cries,
'Twere life if sleep could close her eyes.
Sudden the blazing sky turns gray,
The wind comes leaping on its way.
Within the room steals quietly
The cool breath of the woods and sea.
The child is still; she sleeps again—
The August rain, the August rain.

The trees, mute figures of despair,
Stand shivering in the biting air.
Upon the oak the dead leaves cling,
The faded tokens of the Spring.
On these gray pensioners bestow
The tender mantle of the snow.
From leaden skies the rains descend
Sharp as the treachery of a friend.
The jewelled ice that bends each tree
Is Death's last, bitter mockery,
A sword to rend the boughs in twain—
December rain, December rain.





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