SO lone I stood, the very trees seemed drawn In conference with themselves. -- Intense -- intense Seemed everything; -- the summer splendor on The sight, -- magnificence! A babe's life might not lighter fail and die Than failed the sunlight. -- Though the hour was noon, The palm of midnight might not lighter lie Upon the brow of June. With eyes upraised, I saw the underwings Of swallows -- gone the instant afterward -- While from the elms there came strange twitterings, Stilled scarce ere they were heard. The river seemed to shiver; and, far down Its darkened length, I saw the sycamores Lean inward closer, under the vast frown That weighed above the shores. Then was a roar, born of some awful burst! . . . And one lay, shrieking, chattering, in my path -- Flung -- he or I -- out of some space accurst As of Jehovah's wrath: Nor barely had he wreaked his latest prayer, Ere back the noon flashed o'er the ruin done, And, o'er uprooted forests tousled there, The birds sang in the sun. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VALENTINES TO MY MOTHER: 1882 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI AMY WENTWORTH; FOR WILLIAM BRADFORD by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE LEGEND OF ARA-COELI by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH PENISKEE by THOMAS GOLD APPLETON PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 64. AL-KAIYUM by EDWIN ARNOLD SONG; IN IMITATION OF SHAKESPEARE'S 'BLOW, BLOW, THOU WINTER WIND' by JAMES BEATTIE |