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<h2>AFTER RAIN</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> For three whole days across the sky, In sullen packs that loomed and broke, With flying fringes dim as smoke, The columns of the rain went by; At every hour the wind awoke; The darkness passed upon the plain; The great drops rattled at the pane. </div> <div class="stanza"> Now piped the wind, or far aloof Fell to a sough remote and dull; And all night long with rush and lull[26] The rain kept drumming on the roof: I heard till ear and sense were full The clash or silence of the leaves, The gurgle in the creaking eaves. </div> <div class="stanza"> But when the fourth day came—at noon, The darkness and the rain were by; The sunward roofs were steaming dry; And all the world was flecked and strewn With shadows from a fleecy sky. The haymakers were forth and gone, And every rillet laughed and shone. </div> <div class="stanza"> Then, too, on me that loved so well The world, despairing in her blight, Uplifted with her least delight, On me, as on the earth, there fell New happiness of mirth and might; I strode the valleys pied and still; I climbed upon the breezy hill. </div> <div class="stanza"> I watched the gray hawk wheel and drop, Sole shadow on the shining world; I saw the mountains clothed and curled, With forest ruffling to the top; I saw the river's length unfurled, Pale silver down the fruited plain, Grown great and stately with the rain. </div> <div class="stanza"> Through miles of shadow and soft heat, Where field and fallow, fence and tree,[27] Were all one world of greenery, I heard the robin ringing sweet, The sparrow piping silverly, The thrushes at the forest's hem; And as I went I sang with them. </div> </div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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