Rain in Summer

6How it clatters along the roofs,

7Like the tramp of hoofs

8How it gushes and struggles out

9From the throat of the overflowing spout!

10Across the window-pane

11It pours and pours;

12And swift and wide,

13With a muddy tide,

14Like a river down the gutter roars

15The rain, the welcome rain!

16The sick man from his chamber looks

17At the twisted brooks;

18He can feel the cool

19Breath of each little pool;

20His fevered brain

21Grows calm again,

22And he breathes a blessing on the rain.

23From the neighboring school

24Come the boys,

25With more than their wonted noise

26And commotion;

27And down the wet streets

28Sail their mimic fleets,

29Till the treacherous pool

30Ingulfs them in its whirling

31And turbulent ocean.

32In the country, on every side,

33Where far and wide,

34Like a leopard's tawny and spotted hide,

35Stretches the plain,

36To the dry grass and the drier grain

37How welcome is the rain!

38In the furrowed land

39The toilsome and patient oxen stand;

40Lifting the yoke encumbered head,

41With their dilated nostrils spread,

42They silently inhale

43The clover-scented gale,

44And the vapors that arise

45From the well-watered and smoking soil.

46For this rest in the furrow after toil

47Their large and lustrous eyes

48Seem to thank the Lord,

49More than man's spoken word.

50Near at hand,

51From under the sheltering trees,

52The farmer sees

53His pastures, and his fields of grain,

54As they bend their tops

55To the numberless beating drops

56Of the incessant rain.

57He counts it as no sin

58That he sees therein

59Only his own thrift and gain.

60These, and far more than these,

61The Poet sees!

62He can behold

63Aquarius old

64Walking the fenceless fields of air;

65And from each ample fold

66Of the clouds about him rolled

67Scattering everywhere

68The showery rain,

69As the farmer scatters his grain.

70He can behold

71Things manifold

72That have not yet been wholly told, —

73Have not been wholly sung nor said.

74For his thought, that never stops,

75Follows the water-drops

76Down to the graves of the dead,

77Down through chasms and gulfs profound,

78To the dreary fountain-head

79Of lakes and rivers under ground;

80And sees them, when the rain is done,

81On the bridge of colors seven

82Climbing up once more to heaven,

83Opposite the setting sun.

84Thus the Seer,

85With vision clear,

86Sees forms appear and disappear,

87In the perpetual round of strange,

88Mysterious change

89From birth to death, from death to birth,

90From earth to heaven, from heaven to earth;

91Till glimpses more sublime

92Of things, unseen before,

93Unto his wondering eyes reveal

94The Universe, as an immeasurable wheel

95Turning forevermore

96In the rapid and rushing river of Time.