Madmoments: or First Verseattempts By a Bornnatural. Addressed to the Lightheaded of Society at Large, by Henry Ellison |
 | I. |
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AN EVENINGSTORM. |
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| II. |
 | Madmoments: or First Verseattempts |  |
AN EVENINGSTORM.
1.
How murky grow the heavens, as in painThey laboured with some monsterbirth — The Heat
Is close and suffocating, as when meet
Contending passions in man's Breast, that strain
The gasping Heart. Some heavy drops of rain,
Wrung out from Nature's agony, the sweat
Of pent up throes, splash sullen down; no sweet
And fresh' ning tears, that ease the air again,
But scant, hot, feverish, even such as fall
From the o'erbrimming cup of misery,
Yet leave it full: while thro' the lurid pall
That shrouds all Heaven, the lightning flashes by,
Revealing hate, but wrapped in mystery,
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2.
Meanwhile th expectant Earth, with troubled brow,Lies stirless, moveless as a living thing,
That holds its breath in dread, yet cannot bring
The throbbing heart to order: no winds blow,
And yet each blade, each leaf with quivering throe,
Forefeels the storm, and hark! on wide spread Wing
Of flashing wrath, the thunderclouds now fling
Their pent up fury, and the earth below,
Reels like a stranded ship beneath the blow,
While through the fervid air fierce echoes ring
Rending the womb of night, and the winds wake
As from a sleep of death, to desolate
With tenfold fury; like man's Hate, to make
A wider desolation, sure tho' late!
But now the Tempesttracks of cloud and rain,
Rifted and riven, float along the sky,
Like a vast wreck, in shattered pageantry;
And the far Thundergrowls roll off again
Like sated beasts of Prey, that not in vain
Have plyed their task, and in low murmurs die
The winds, like froward children, wearied by
The Fret and Vehemence of passing Pain.
| Madmoments: or First Verseattempts | |