The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-04-13
BALLAD OF THE RAIN.

n. P WILLIS, in the Home .]o,trnal says
that in the following Poem the words are not
, only far sweeter than he could write, but to the
very tune of the falling rain. Since Edgar a.
Poe's Raven no mourning madrigal has
been written so sweet as the "Ballad of the
Rain. The author is Mrs, Juliet H. E. Camp
bell Gar-htcr Of Chief Justice Ellis Lewis.
Alas expectant maiden,
Thy president soul Is laden
With nameless fears. and binding tears stream
down thy crystal pane
All dim with drops of anguish, and wet with
driving rain, Drifting rain
The music of his coming. we neer shall meet
again.
Hist to the distant patter
The tumult and the clater
His milk-white steed, on Kuhleh's breed,
tramps up the grassy lane !
Mol It's the hiIl-fox straying:
Too near the ban-dogs bray ing,
It is the wild VOLTS gallop across tie dismal
plain
I, /, the wall of s.oim aud gale-it. IS the surg
ing rain-Dirging rain
With ceaseless drop. drop, dropping upon tor
turcd brain
/ cannot hear the sobbine,
The deep and labored throbbing.
From yonder forge that in the gorge beats its
great heart of pain.
See low its wild lights CULVER
Adown the turbid river,
On untamed waves. from mountain caves, fast
fastening to the main
On milk white-horse-on lithe-limbed horse
fast drifting to the MAIN
Launcelot Lane
The ford of Tay, did thou eesay, all swollen
with the rain ?
The lilly bells shattered
The tulips hole is scattered
mn rr,,A o,,A FRA fvro of
Launcelot Vane /
Oh, maid araong the lilies,
The churchyard mold SO chill is,
Yet, rest thy head upon its bed, and cool thy
fevered brain
Gods truth upon thy dolour, we lay thee in
Ali ouenched the fire of sick desire, out yonder
in the rain !
Last night the fragrant lilly
So stately wan, and Silly,
Held high her pallid chalice, gathering white
ness from the moon;
And standing like warden,
Beside tn enchanted garden,
The tulip-tree tossed high and free his yellow
stars of b1osm,
And swept their golden Hastings through the
armament of June;
While the plain
OF shivering breeze and quivering trees, forbid
the coming rain;
The lilly bells are scattered,
The tulips hole is shattered,
His emerald crown came rushing Down before
the wind and rain;
All, dainty summer lilly,
Thy bed is dark and chilly,
Alb, voc is nee the tulip tree was named for
Launcelot Nanel
Who never in the cleaning shall seek its bow
ers again,
Ruthless rain
Who never with our lilly msid shall keep his
tryst again.
In sooth it is appalling,
This cold relentless falling
The weary, dreary splashing and dashing OF
the rain
1t rains in at the gable
All weather-stained and sable,
And fiercely drives at Mabel, with cheek
against the pane -,
At waiting, watching Mabel, whose tears iell
like the rain,
Woeful rainl
At hoping, fearful Mabel, who to see the moon
would fain,
The moon that ere hath lighted
Her lover when benighted
Across rsvine and mountai nstream. DER lonely
-r---t- weld and plain
Tonight he seeks his plighted
Whose ruby lips are whited,
And thus she pleads and intercedes, "Dispel
the mist and ralur'
Unmeveti the leaden cleth:ng-
The murk and dismal shrouding
Mabel tonight for hope and light TO Heaven
looks In vain.
Lucy Stone saws "there is cotton in
the ears of men and hope In the bosom
ofwou.ao.' Got TIA: wrong end first,