William Cullen Bryant

Midsummer

   A Sonnet

A power is on the earth and in the air,
    From which the vital spirit shrinks afraid,
    And shelters him, in nooks of deepest shade,
From the hot steam and from the fiery glare.
Look forth upon the earth—her thousand plants
    Are smitten; even the dark sun-loving maize
    Faints in the field beneath the torrid blaze;
The herd beside the shaded fountain pants;
For life is driven from all the landscape brown;
    The bird has sought his tree, the snake his den,
    The trout floats dead in the hot stream, and men
Drop by the sun-stroke in the populous town:
    As if the Day of Fire had dawned, and sent
    Its deadly breath into the firmament.