From morn till noon upon the window-pane
The tempest tapped with rainy
finger-nails,
And all the afternoon the
blustering gales
Beat at the door with furious feet of
rain.
The rose, near which the lily bloom lay
slain,
Like some red wound dripped
by the garden rails,
On which the sullen slug left slimy trails-
Meseemed the sun would never shine again.
Then in the drench, long, loud and full of cheer,-
A skyey herald tabarded in blue,-
A bluebird bugled ... and
at once a bow
Was bent in heaven, and I seemed to hear
God’s sapphire spaces
crystallizing through
The strata’d clouds
in azure tremolo.