Rain and Wind by Madison Cawein — Read

I hear the hoofs of horses / Galloping over the hill, / Galloping on and galloping on, / When all the night is shrill / With wind and rain that beats the pane -- / And my soul with awe is still.

For every dripping window / Their headlong rush makes bound, / Galloping up, and galloping by, / Then back again and around, / Till the gusty roofs ring with their hoofs, / And the draughty cellars sound.

And then I hear black horsemen / Hallooing in the night; / Hallooing and hallooing, / They ride o'er vale and height, / And the branches snap and the shutters clap / With the fury of their flight.

Then at each door a horseman, -- / With burly bearded lip / Hallooing through the keyhole, -- / Pauses with cloak a-drip; / And the door-knob shakes and the panel quakes / 'Neath the anger of his whip.

All night I hear their gallop, / And their wild halloo's alarm; / The tree-tops sound and vanes go round / In forest and on farm; / But never a hair of a thing is there -- / Only the wind and storm.