University of Virginia Library


129

AUTUMN STORM

Topping the hills the oaks,
Black on the sunset's fire,
Draw, with terrific strokes,
Gates as it were of Tyre,
Burning; while, like a page
Out of some tragedy,
Heaven grows dark with rage,
Pregnant with things to be.
Out of the North the Wind
Gallops with all his hordes,
Hun-like, and gaunt and blind,
Swooping the Earth with swords:
Night, on her tower of cloud,
Lets her wild beacon flare;
Then, through the darkness loud,
Arrows rain everywhere.
Wrapped in their mantles wide,
Cloaks of the mist that stream,
Onward the Hours ride,
Forward with never a gleam:
On through the forest, on,
Over wild hill and plain,
All the long night till dawn
Trample the troops of rain.