I THE fiery mountains answer each other, Their thunderings are echoed from zone to zone; The tempestuous oceans awake one another, And the ice-rocks are shaken round Winter's throne, When the clarion of the Typhoon is blown. II From a single cloud the lightning flashes, Whilst a thousand isles are illumined around; Earthquake is trampling one city to ashes, An hundred are shuddering and tottering; the sound Is bellowing underground. III But keener thy gaze than the lightning's glare, And swifter thy step than the earthquake's tramp; Thou deafenest the rage of the ocean; thy stare Makes blind the volcanoes; the sun's bright lamp To thine is a fen-fire damp. IV From billow and mountain and exhalation The sunlight is darted through vapor and blast; From spirit to spirit, from nation to nation, From city to hamlet, thy dawning is cast, -- And tyrants and slaves are like shadows of night In the van of the morning light. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PLAYERS ASK FOR A BLESSING ON THE PSALTERIES AND ON THEMSELVES by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS BLUEBEARD'S CLOSET by ROSE TERRY COOKE A MEDITATION FOR HIS MISTRESS by ROBERT HERRICK IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 54 by ALFRED TENNYSON FORGETFULNESS by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH WIND WEAVING by FRANCES HALLEY BROCKETT |