 | The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes |  |
AN ENIGMA
I
In light, in shade, its changing form appears,Now clothed in blushes, and now bathed in tears;
It spreads its wings upon the summer air,
And sits in silence on the mountain bare;
Wrapped in the shadows of its gloomy breast,
The springs of life, the fires of vengeance, rest;
It floats in kindness, and it flies in wrath,
And skies grow darker in its awful path;
It paints the petal of the dying flower,
It shakes the temple, and it rocks the tower!
Its shaft strikes down the lovely and the brave;
Yet will it turn and weep upon their grave.
| The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes | |