A Summer Shower
Welcome, rain or tempestFrom yon airy powers,We have languished for themMany sultry hours,And earth is sick and wan, and pines with all her flowers.
What have they been doingIn the burning June?Riding with the genii?Visiting the moon?Or sleeping on the ice amid an arctic noon?
Bring they with them jewelsFrom the sunset lands?What are these they scatterWith such lavish hands?There are no brighter gems in Raolconda’s sands.
Pattering on the gravel,Dropping from the eaves,Glancing in the grass, andTinkling on the leaves,They flash the liquid pearls as flung from fairy sieves.
Meanwhile, unreluctant,Earth like Danaë lies;Listen! is it fancy,That beneath us sighs,As that warm lap receives the largesse of the skies?
Jove, it is, descendethIn those crystal rills;And this world-wide tremorIs a pulse that thrillsTo a god’s life infused through veins of velvet hills.
Wait, thou jealous sunshine,Break not on their bliss;Earth will blush in rosesMany a day for this,And bend a brighter brow beneath thy burning kiss.