Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. IV. The Nineteenth Century: Wordsworth to Rossetti
Hartley Coleridge (17961849)Summer Rain
T
In glaring mimicry of Arab sand.
The woods and mountains slept in hazy light;
The meadows look’d athirst and tawny tanned;
The little rills had left their channels bare,
With scarce a pool to witness what they were;
And the shrunk river gleamed ’mid oozy stones,
That stared like any famished giant’s bones.
The air beneath; it was a toil to be.
There was a growling as of angry Jove,
Provoked by Juno’s prying jealousy—
A flash—a crash—the firmament was split,
And down it came in drops—the smallest fit
To drown a bee in fox-glove bell conceal’d;
Joy filled the brook, and comfort cheered the field.