The Summer Shower / Thomas Buchanan Read

The Summer Shower

    Before the stout harvesters falleth the grain,
    As when the strong storm-wind is reaping the plain;
    And loiters the boy in the briery lane;
    But yonder aslant comes the silvery rain,
Like a long line of spears brightly burnished and tall.

    Adown the white highway, like cavalry fleet,
    It dashes the dust with its numberless feet.
    Like a murmurless school, in their leafy retreat,
    The wild birds sit listening, the drops round them beat;
And the boy crouches close to the blackberry wall.

    The swallows alone take the storm on their wing,
    And, taunting the tree-sheltered laborers, sing.
    Like pebbles the rain breaks the face of the spring,
    While a bubble darts up from each widening ring;
And the boy, in dismay, hears the loud shower fall.

    But soon are the harvesters tossing the sheaves;
    The robin darts out from its bower of leaves;
    The wren peereth forth from the moss-covered eaves;
    And the rain-spattered urchin now gladly perceives
That the beautiful bow bendeth over them all.

~~
Thomas Buchanan Read (1822-1872)

from Poems, 1847

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Thomas Buchanan Read biography

Tomasz Sienicki, Regenschauer, 2003. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.