The silence of preluded song - AEolian silence charms the woods; Each tree a harp, whose foliaged strings Are waiting for the master's touch
To sweep them into storms of joy, Stands mute and whispers not; the birds Brood dumb in their foreboding nests, Save here and there a chirp or tweet,
That utters fear or anxious love, Or when the ouzel sends a swift Half warble, shrinking back again His golden bill, or when aloud
The storm-cock warns the dusking hills And villages and valleys round: For lo, beneath those ragged clouds That skirt the opening west, a stream
Of yellow light and windy flame Spreads lengthening southward, and the sky Begins to gloom, and o'er the ground A moan of coming blasts creeps low
And rustles in the crisping grass; Till suddenly with mighty arms Outspread, that reach the horizon round, The great South-West drives o'er the earth,
And loosens all his roaring robes Behind him, over heath and moor. He comes upon the neck of night, Like one that leaps a fiery steed
Whose keen black haunches quivering shine With eagerness and haste, that needs No spur to make the dark leagues fly! Whose eyes are meteors of speed;
Whose mane is as a flashing foam; Whose hoofs are travelling thunder-shocks; - He comes, and while his growing gusts, Wild couriers of his reckless course,
Are whistling from the daggered gorse, And hurrying over fern and broom, Midway, far off, he feigns to halt And gather in his streaming train.
Now, whirring like an eagle's wing Preparing for a wide blue flight; Now, flapping like a sail that tacks And chides the wet bewildered mast;
Now, screaming like an anguish'd thing Chased close by some down-breathing beak; Now, wailing like a breaking heart, That will not wholly break, but hopes
With hope that knows itself in vain; Now, threatening like a storm-charged cloud; Now, cooing like a woodland dove; Now, up again in roar and wrath
High soaring and wide sweeping; now, With sudden fury dashing down Full-force on the awaiting woods. Long waited there, for aspens frail
That tinkle with a silver bell, To warn the Zephyr of their love, When danger is at hand, and wake The neighbouring boughs, surrendering all
Their prophet harmony of leaves, Had caught his earliest windward thought, And told it trembling; naked birk Down showering her dishevelled hair,
And like a beauty yielding up Her fate to all the elements, Had swayed in answer; hazels close, Thick brambles and dark brushwood tufts,
And briared brakes that line the dells With shaggy beetling brows, had sung Shrill music, while the tattered flaws Tore over them, and now the whole
Tumultuous concords, seized at once With savage inspiration,— pine, And larch, and beech, and fir, and thorn, And ash, and oak, and oakling, rave
And shriek, and shout, and whirl, and toss, And stretch their arms, and split, and crack, And bend their stems, and bow their heads, And grind, and groan, and lion-like
Roar to the echo-peopled hills And ravenous wilds, and crake-like cry With harsh delight, and cave-like call With hollow mouth, and harp-like thrill
With mighty melodies, sublime, From clumps of column'd pines that wave A lofty anthem to the sky, Fit music for a prophet's soul -
And like an ocean gathering power, And murmuring deep, while down below Reigns calm profound;— not trembling now The aspens, but like freshening waves
That fall upon a shingly beach; - And round the oak a solemn roll Of organ harmony ascends, And in the upper foliage sounds
A symphony of distant seas. The voice of nature is abroad This night; she fills the air with balm; Her mystery is o'er the land;
And who that hears her now and yields His being to her yearning tones, And seats his soul upon her wings, And broadens o'er the wind-swept world
With her, will gather in the flight More knowledge of her secret, more Delight in her beneficence, Than hours of musing, or the lore
That lives with men could ever give! Nor will it pass away when morn Shall look upon the lulling leaves, And woodland sunshine, Eden-sweet,
Dreams o'er the paths of peaceful shade; - For every elemental power Is kindred to our hearts, and once Acknowledged, wedded, once embraced,
Once taken to the unfettered sense, Once claspt into the naked life, The union is eternal.
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