P O:ETRX.
RAIN IN SPRING.
Cloud films that hardly stain
The sky's blue hall Gather, dissolve, .and fall In ,sudden visitations of bright rain.
Then the soft voice of seas
Is heard in the green precincts of the trees—
A long, still hushing ; then the subtler hiss Of thousand-bladed grass : then, over this, Out of the trees' high tops, The ticking of larger drops That small' loaf-tricklings fill
Till, ,one by one, whenever the wet leaves stir,
From leaf to- overweighted leaf they spill, Heavy as quicksilver.
"These -are the showers of spring, Pilgrims that pass And scatter crystal seed among the grass ; That make the .still ponds sing Delicate tunes, and leave the hedgerows filled With tepid fragrance ; brim with violet haze Hollows of hills, and glaze
Each leaf with lacquer -winningly distilled
From .sunlight ; they that Sing A brightness along the edge of everything, And the frail splendour of the rainbow build To span •six miles of meadowland, as though Each rain-dipped _flower below. Breathed up its colour through the shining air To hang in beauty there.
MARTIN ARMSTRONG.
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