The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1855-05-19
AsBURY DICKINs,
BY the President;
w. L. MARCY, Secretary Of State.
A RAIN DREAM.

WILLIAM BRYANT.
These strifes these tumults OF the noisy world,
And Strength, the ruliian, glories in his guilt,
Cypress the heart with sadness. Oh my friend,
In what serener mood we look upon
The gloomiest aspect of the elements
Among the wood and fields Let us awhile,
As the slow wind is rolling up the storm,
In fancy leave this maze Of dusty streets
Forever shaken by the mportunate jar
OF commerce, and upon the darkening air
Look from the shelter OF our rural home.
Who is not awcd that listens to the Rain,
Sending his voice before him2 Mighty Rain
The upland sleeps are shrouded by thy mists
The wales are gloomy with thy shade; the pools
No longer glimmer, and the silver streams
Darker TO veins Of lead at thy approach.
Oh, mighty Rain! already thou art here;
And every roof is beaten BY thy streams,
And a. thou passest every CLASSY spring
Grows rough, and every leaf in all the woods
Is struck and quivcrs. All the hill tops slake
Their thirst from thee; thousand langushng fields,
thousand fanting gardens, are refreshcd
thousand idle rivulets start to speed,
And with the graver murmur Of the storm
Blend their light voices AS they hurry on
Thou hl'st the circle of the atmosphere
Alone there is no living thing abroad,
No bird to wing the air, nor beast to walk
The field the squirrel in the forest seeks
His hollow tree the marmot OF the field
Has scampercd TO his den the butterfly
Hides under her broad leaf; the insect crowds
That made the sunshine populous lie close
In their mysterious shelters, whence the sun
viii summon them again. The mighty Rain
Holds the vast empire OF the sky alone.
shut my eyes, and see, as in dream,
The friendly clouds drop down spring vioetB
And summer colunbines, and all the fowers
That tutt the woodland floor, or overach
The streamlet ;--spiky grass for genial June,
Brown harvests for the waiting husbandman,
And for the woods deiuge OF iresh leaves.
1 see these myriad drops that siake the dust,
Gathered In glorious streams, rolling blue
In pillows on the lake the deep,
And bearing naves. behold them change
To threads OF crystal as they sink in earth
And leave It's stains behind, to rise again
In pleasant hooks OF verdare where the child,
thirsty with play, in both his little hands
Shall take the cool clear water, raising it
TO wet bis pretty lips. Tomorrow noon
How proudly will the watery ride
The trimming pool, oerlnoking, like queen,
Her circle Of broad leaves. la lonely wastes,
When next the sunshine makes them beautiful
Gay troops Of butterflies shall light to drink
AT the replenished hoows of the rock.
Now slowly fails the dull blank night, and still,
All through the starless hours, the mighty Rain
smites with perpetual sound the forest leaves,
And beats the matted grass and still the earth
Drinks the nnstinted bounty Of the clouds
Drinks for her cottage wells, her woodland brooks,
And brooding bird drinks for her tender towers.
Tau oaks, aud all tho herbage OF her hills.
melancholy sound Ia in the air,
A deep sigh Ia the distance, shrili wall
Around my dwelling. lis the wall Of night;
a lonely wanderer between earth and cloud,
In the black shadow and the chilly mist
Along the streaming mountain side, and through
The dripping woods and DER the plashy heIds
Roaming and Borrowing still, like one who makes
The journey OF life alone aud nowhere meets
a welcome or friend, apd still goes on
In darkness. Yet awhile little while,
And he shall toss the glittering leaves ia play.
Aud daily with the flowers, and galy lift
The slender herbs, pressed low by weight Of rain
And drive, IN Joyous triumph, through the skv
WHITE clouds, the isggnd remnants Of the storm