The narrow lanes are vacant and wet; The rough wind bullies and blusters about the township. And spins the vane on the tower And chases the scurrying leaves, And the straw in the damp innyard. See -- a girl passes Tripping gingerly over the pools, And under her lifted dress I catch the gleam of a comely, stockinged leg. Pah! the room stifles me, Reeking of stale tobacco -- With the four black mealy horrible prints After Landseer's pictures. I will go out. Here the free wind comes with a fuller circle, Sings, like an angry wasp, in the straining grass, Sings and whistles; And the hurried flow of rain Scourges my face and passes. Behind me, clustered together, the rain-wet roofs of the town Shine, and the light vane shines as it veers In the long pale finger of sun that hurries across them to me. The fresh salt air is keen in my nostrils, And far down the shining sand Foam and thunder And take the shape of the bay in eager mirth The white-head hungry billows. The earth shakes As the semicircle of waters Stoops and casts itself down; And far outside in the open, Wandering gleams of sunshine Show us the ordered horde that hurries to follow. Ei! merry companions, Your madness infects me. My whole soul rises and falls and leaps and tumbles with you! I shout aloud and incite you, O white-headed merry companions. The sight of you alone is better than drinking. The brazen band is loosened from off my forehead; My breast and my brain are moistened and cool; And still I yell in answer To your hoarse inarticulate voices, O big, strong, bullying, boisterous waves, That are of all things in nature the nearest thoughts to human, Because you are wicked and foolish, Mad and destructive. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DR. SCUDDER'S CLINICAL LECTURE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPRING by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS EPIGRAMS: BOOK I, 1 by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS HA! HA! HO! HO! by BERTON BRALEY FROM THE CANTEEN by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN |