PORTENTOUS sound! mysteriously vast And awful in the grandeur of refrain That lifts the listener's hair as it swells past, And pours in turbid currents down the lane. The small boy at the wood-pile, in a dream Slow trails the meat-rind o'er the listless saw; The chickens roosting o'er him on the beam Uplift their drowsy heads with cootered awe. The "gung-oigh!" of the pump is strangely stilled: The smoke-house door bangs once emphatic'ly, Then bangs no more, but leaves the silence filled With one lorn plaint's despotic minstrelsy. Yet I would join thy sorrowing madrigal, Most melancholy cow, and sing of thee Full-hearted through my tears, for, after all, 'Tis very kine in you to sing for me. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE GOOD-BY AND KEEP COLD by ROBERT FROST BALLAD: TIME OF ROSES by THOMAS HOOD MAHMOUD by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT THE NEW EZEKIEL by EMMA LAZARUS THE FOURTH OF JULY by JOHN PIERPONT FOR THE HOLY FAMILY, BY MICHELANGELO (IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI |