Littell's Living Age/Volume 1/Issue 1/The Spring Shower

A WAY to that snug nook; for the thick shower Rushes on stridingly. Ay, now it comes, Glancing about the leaves with its first drips, Like snatches of faint music. Joyous thrush, It mingles with thy song, and beats soft time To thy bubbling shrillness. Now it louder falls, Pattering, like the far voice of leaping rills; And now it breaks upon the shrinking clumps With a crash of many sounds—the thrush is still. There are sweet scents about us; the violet hides On that green bank; the primrose sparkles there: The earth is grateful to the teeming clouds, And yields a sudden freshness to their kisses. But now the shower slopes to the warm west, Leaving a dewy track; and see, the big drops, Like falling pearls, glisten in the sunny mist. The air is clear again, and the far woods Shine out in their early green. Let ’s onward then, For the first blossoms peep about our path, The lambs are nibbling the short dripping grass, And the birds are on the bushes.