Carol and Cadence :: :: University of Virginia Library

The lightning comes and goes across the skies of June,
Sundering the sable clouds beneath its steely shoon;
And lo! from out the rift the newly-blossomed moon,
Soaring the wrack above,
High on the hills of heaven hangs like a silver dove.
'Tis as the fable old, that tells how Death and Life,
Conjoining, in accord, for solving of their strife,
Made Love.

Sudden the thunder rolls and volleys o'er the plain;
Forth of the darkening lift the levins dart again
And from the clouds compact the hurtling, hurrying rain
Falls, at the tempest's breath.
The moon into the dark, abashed, reëntereth.
'Tis as in this our world, when, born of Life and Love,
Accoupling, each with each, like sparrow-hawk and dove,
Is Death.

Yet from the distant woods the cushat's voice I hear,
Voice melancholy still unto the happy ear
But now to me it bears a message as of cheer
And minds me how in strife,
In suff'rance and despair, the seeds of hope are rife.
'Tis as a tale from spheres of other-worldly breath,
Where from the accouplement in night of Love and Death
Comes Life.