Читать книгу The Poems of Madison Cawein. Volume 2 (of 5) - Cawein Madison Julius - Страница 57

That night, returning to the farm, we rode

Before a storm. Uprolling from the west,

Incessant with distending fire, loomed

The multitudes of tempest: towering here

A shadowy Shasta, there a cloudy Hood,

Veined as with agonies, aurora-born,

Of torrent gold; resplendent heaven to heaven,

Far peak to peak, terrific spoke; the vast

Sierras of the storm, within which beat

The caverned thunder like a mighty stream:

Vibrating on, with rushing wind and flame,

Now th’ opening welkin shone, one livid sheet

Of instantaneous gold, a giant’s forge,

Wild-clanging; now, with streak on angled streak

Of momentary light, a labyrinth

Where shouting Darkness stalked with Titan torch:

Again the firmament hung hewn with fire

Whence leapt the thunder; and it seemed that hosts

Of Heaven rushed to war with blazing shields

And swords of splendor. And before the storm

We galloped, while the frantic trees above

Went wild with rain, through whose mad limbs and leaves

Splashed black the first big drops. On, on we drove,

And gained the gates, pillaring the avenue

Of ancient beech, at whose far, flickering end,

At last, beaconed the lights of home.

And she?

Was it the lightning that lent lividness

And terror to her countenance? or fear

Of her own heart? revulsion? memory?

Did deep regret, that, now the thing was done,

That she was mine, a yearning to be free,

Away from me, assail her? or, the thought,

The knowledge, that she did not love the man

Whom she had wedded? knowing better now

That all her heart was Julien’s from the first,