A SAD man on a summer day Did look upon the earth and say -- 'Purple cloud the hill-top binding; Folded hills the valleys wind in; Valleys with fresh streams among you; Streams with bosky trees along you; Trees with many birds and blossoms; Birds with music-trembling bosoms; Blossoms dropping dews that wreathe you To your fellow flowers beneath you; Flowers that constellate on earth; Earth that shakest to the mirth Of the merry Titan Ocean, All his shining hair in motion! Why am I thus the only one Who can be dark beneath the sun?' But when the summer day was past, He looked to heaven and smiled at last, Self-answered so -- 'Because, O cloud, Pressing with thy crumpled shroud Heavily on mountain top, -- Hills that almost seem to drop Stricken with a misty death To the valleys underneath, -- Valleys sighing with the torrent, -- Waters streaked with branches horrent, -- Branchless trees that shake your head Wildly o'er your blossoms spread Where the common flowers are found, -- Flowers with foreheads to the ground, -- Ground that shriekest while the sea With his iron smiteth thee -- I am, besides, the only one Who can be bright without the sun.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LENTEN GREETING; TO A LADY by GEORGE SANTAYANA MEETING AT NIGHT by ROBERT BROWNING AND WHAT SHALL YOU SAY? by JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER JR. PATIENCE by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE EXODUS FOR OREGON by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER RIDDLE: TEETH AND GUMS by MOTHER GOOSE |