How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!
How it clatters along the roofs,
Like the tramp of hoofs!
How it gushes and struggles out
From the throat of the overflowing spout!
Across the window-pane
It pours and pours;...
Forty Reasons for Not Accepting an Invitation of a Friend to Make an Excursion with Him 1
1 THE HOLLOW winds begin to blow;
2 The clouds look black, the glass is low,
3 The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep,
4 And spiders from their cobwebs peep.
5 Last night the sun went pale to bed,
6 The moon in halos hid her head;
7 The...
More than the wind, more than the snow,
More than the sunshine, I love rain:
Whether it droppeth soft and low,
Whether it rusheth amain.
Dark as the night it spreadeth its wings,
Slow and silently, up on the hills;
Then sweeps o’er the vale, like a steed that springs
From the grasp of a thousand wills.
Swift sweeps...
From “Wicklow”
YES, this is Wicklow; round our feet
And o’er our heads its woodlands smile;
Behold it, love—the garden sweet
And playground of our stormy isle.* * * * *
Is it not fair—the leafy land?
Not boasting Nature’s sterner pride,
Voluptuous beauty, scenes that stand
By minds immortal...
I.
o Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes! O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark, wintry bed
The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each...
I Bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother’s breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of...
I Love at eventide to walk alone,
Down narrow glens, o’erhung with dewy thorn,
Where from the long grass underneath, the snail,
Jet black, creeps out, and sprouts his timid horn.
I love to muse o’er meadows newly mown,
Where withering grass perfumes the sultry air;
Where bees search round, with sad and weary drone,
In vain, for flowers...
Come, hoist the sail, the fast let go!
They’re seated side by side;
Wave chases wave in pleasant flow;
The bay is fair and wide.
The ripples lightly tap the boat;
Loose! Give her to the wind!
She shoots ahead; they’re all afloat;
The strand is far behind.
No danger reach so fair a crew!
Thou goddess of the...
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun!
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run—
To bend with apples the mossed cottage trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core—
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet...
I Like the hunting of the hare
Better than that of the fox;
I like the joyous morning air,
And the crowing of the cocks.
I like the calm of the early fields,
The ducks asleep by the lake,
The quiet hour which Nature yields
Before mankind is awake.
I like the pheasants and feeding things
Of the unsuspicious...
