Storm in the Alps

From “Childe Harold,” Canto III.   THE SKY is changed!—and such a change! O night,   And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong,   Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light   Of a dark eye in woman! Far along,   From peak to peak, the rattling crags among   Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud,   But every mountain now hath found a tongue,   And Jura answers, through her misty shroud, Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud!   And this is in the night:—most glorious night!   Thou wert not sent for slumber! let me be   A sharer in thy fierce and far delight,—   A portion of the tempest and of thee!   How the lit lake shines, a phosphoric sea,   And the big rain comes dancing to the earth!   And now again ’t is black,—and now, the glee   Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain-mirth, As if they did rejoice o’er a young earthquake’s birth.