The Summer Shower - An 1858 Poem
By Albert Laighton.
- A white haze glimmered on the hills,
- The vales were parched and dry,
- And glaringly the beaming sun
- Coursed in the summer sky.
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- The cattle in the distant woods
- Sought shelter from its beams:
- Or, motionless and patient, stood
- Knee-deep amid the streams.
-
- The house-dog lay, with panting breath,
- Close where the elm trees grew:
- The blue bird and the oriole
- To shady coverts flew.
-
- Day after day the thirsty earth
- Looked up to heaven for rain:
- The gardens held their flower cups,
- The fields their lips of grain.
-
- With doubting hearts, men, murmuring said
- "Our toils have been in vain;
- We sowed in Spring, but shall not reap
- When Autumn comes again."
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- But while they spoke, within the west,
- At sunset's glowing hour,
- God's voice proclaimed, in thunder tones,
- The coming of the shower!
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- The deepening shadow's slowly crept
- O'er the mountain and o'er plain
- Until in cool and copious floods,
- Came down the blessed rain.
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- All nature smiled, and when at last
- The cloudy wings were furled,
- The evening start shone regally
- Above a thankful world.
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- O love of heaven! O fear of man!
- O faith, so cold and dim!
- When shall we own the ways of God,
- And learn to trust in Him?
July 23, 1858. Washington D.C. Evening Star 12(1717): 4.