Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A WINDY DAY, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A WINDY DAY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The dawn was a dawn of splendor
Last Line: In a spatter of spiteful rain.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Dawn; Prayer; Trees; Wind; Sunrise


THE dawn was a dawn of splendor,
And the blue of the morning skies
Was as placid and deep and tender
As the blue of a baby's eyes;
The sunshine flooded the mountain,
And flashed over land and sea
Like the spray of a glittering fountain. --
But the wind -- the wind -- Ah me!

Like a weird invisible spirit,
It swooped in its airy flight;
And the earth, as the stress drew near it,
Quailed as in mute affright;
The grass in the green fields quivered --
The waves of the smitten brook
Chillily shuddered and shivered,
And the reeds bowed down and shook.

Like a sorrowful miserere
It sobbed, and it blew and blew,
Till the leaves on the trees looked weary,
And my prayers were weary, too;
And then, like the sunshine's glimmer
That failed in the awful strain,
All the hope of my eyes grew dimmer
In a spatter of spiteful rain.





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