A July Day / Philip Bourke Marston

A July Day

To-day the sun has stedfast been and clear —
    No wind has marred the spell of hushful heat,
    But, with the twilight, comes a rush and beat
Of ghost-like wings; the sky turns grey and drear,
The trees are stricken with a sudden fear.
    O wind forlorn, that sayeth nothing sweet,
    With what foreboding message dost them greet
The dearest month but one of all the year?

Ah, now it seems I catch the moan of seas
    Whose boundaries are pale regions of dismay,
Where sad-eyed people wander without ease;
    I see in thought that lamentable array,
    And surely hear about the dying day
Recorded dooms and mournful prophecies.

~~
Philip Bourke Marston (1850-1887)
from Wind-voices, 1883

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Philip Bourke Marston biography

Martyn Gorman, Newburgh: An evening storm brews over the Ythan estuary, July 2010.

CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.