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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE CLOUD, by ANONYMOUS First Line: A cloud came over a land of leaves Last Line: New life with the world's new birth Subject(s): Clouds | |||
A CLOUD came over a land of leaves (Oh, hush, little leaves, lest it pass you by!) -- How they had waited and watched for the rain, Mountain and valley, and vineyard and plain, With never a sign from the sky! Day after day had the pitiless sun Looked down with a lidless eye. But now! On a sudden a whisper went Through the topmost twigs of the poplar spire; Out of the east a light wind blew; (All the leaves trembled, and murmured, and drew Hope to the help of desire); It stirred the faint pulse of the forest tree, And breathed through the brake and the brier. Slowly the cloud came, and then the wind died, Dumb lay the land in its hot suspense; The thrush on the elm-bough suddenly stopped, The weather-warned swallow in mid-flying dropped, The linnet ceased song in the fence; -- Mute the cloud moved, till it hung overhead, Heavy, big-bosomed, and dense. Ah, the cool rush through the dry-tongued trees, The patter and plash on the thirsty earth, The eager bubbling of runnel and rill, The lisping of leaves that have drunk their fill, The freshness that follows the dearth! New life for the woodland, the vineyard, the vale, New life with the world's new birth! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PRESENCES by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE CLOUDHERD'S SONG by ROBERT KELLY THE IMPRESSMENT by WILLIAM MEREDITH THE CLOUDS ABOVE THE OCEAN by STEPHEN DOBYNS THE SACHEM OF THE CLOUDS (A THANKSGIVING LEGEND) by ROBERT FROST A PORTRAIT OF MY ROOF by JAMES GALVIN ABOVE AND WITHIN by DAVID IGNATOW TIS A LITTLE JOURNEY by ANONYMOUS |
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