The Talk of the Echoes. (a Threefold Cord)

A FRAGMENT.

When the cock crows loud from the glen, / And the moor-cock chirrs from the heather, / What hear ye and see ye then, / Ye children of air and ether?

1_st Echo_.

A thunder as of waves at the rising of the moon, / And a darkness on the graves though the day is at its noon.

_2nd Echo_. A springing as of grass though the air is damp and chill, / And a glimmer from the river that winds about the hill.

_1st Echo_. A lapse of crags that leant from the mountain's earthen / sheath, / And a shock of ruin sent on the river underneath.

_2nd Echo_. A sound as of a building that groweth fair and good, / And a piping of the thrushes from the hollow of the wood.

_1st Echo_. A wailing as of lambs that have wandered from the flock, / And a bleating of their dams that was answered from the rock.

_2nd Echo_. A breathing as of cattle in the shadow where they dream, / And a sound of children playing with the pebbles in the stream.

_1st Echo_. A driving as of clouds in the kingdom of the air, / And a tumult as of crowds that mingle everywhere.

_2nd Echo_. A waving of the grass, and a passing o'er the lakes, / And a shred of tempest-cloud in the glory when it breaks.