Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Before the Rain

WE knew it would rain, for all the morn
   A spirit on slender ropes of mist
Was lowering its golden buckets down
   Into the vapory amethyst.

Of marshes and swamps and dismal fens--
   Scooping the dew that lay in the flowers,
Dipping the jewels out of the sea,
   To sprinkle them over the land in showers.

We knew it would rain, for the poplars showed
   The white of their leaves, the amber grain
Shrunk in the wind--and the lightning now
   Is tangled in tremulous skeins of rain!