After Rain

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.     Now piped the wind, or far aloof     Fell to a sough remote and dull;     And all night long with rush and lull     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.     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.     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.     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.     Through miles of shadow and soft heat,     Where field and fallow, fence and tree,     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.