Explore "Before the Rain" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Before the rain, low in the obscure east, / Weak and morose the moon hung, sickly gray; / Around its disc the storm mists, cracked and creased, / Wove an enormous web, wherein it lay / Like some white spider hungry for its prey. / Vindictive looked the scowling firmament, / In which each star, that flashed a dagger ray, / Seemed filled with malice of some dark intent.
The marsh-frog croaked; and underneath the stone / The peevish cricket raised a creaking cry. / Within the world these sounds were heard alone, / Save when the ruffian wind swept from the sky, / Making each tree like some sad spirit sigh; / Or shook the clumsy beetle from its weed, / That, in the drowsy darkness, bungling by, / Sharded the silence with its feverish speed.
Slowly the tempest gathered. Hours passed / Before was heard the thunder's sullen drum / Rumbling night's hollow; and the Earth at last, / Restless with waiting, -- like a woman, dumb / With doubting of the love that should have clomb / Her casement hours ago, -- avowed again, / 'Mid protestations, joy that he had come. / And all night long I heard the Heavens explain.