Rain In The Woods

When on the leaves the rain persists,     And every gust brings showers down;     When all the woodland smokes with mists,     I take the old road out of town     Into the hills through which it twists.     I find the vale where catnip grows,     Where boneset blooms, with moisture bowed;     The vale through which the red creek flows,     Turbid with hill-washed clay, and loud     As some wild horn a hunter blows.     Around the root the beetle glides,     A living beryl; and the ant,     Large, agate-red, a garnet, slides     Beneath the rock; and every plant     Is roof for some frail thing that hides.     Like knots against the trunks of trees     The lichen-colored moths are pressed;     And, wedged in hollow blooms, the bees     Seem clots of pollen; in its nest     The wasp has crawled and lies at ease.     The locust harsh, that sharply saws     The silence of the summer noon;     The katydid that thinly draws     Its fine file o'er the bars of moon;     And grasshopper that drills each pause:     The mantis, long-clawed, furtive, lean     Fierce feline of the insect hordes     And dragonfly, gauze-winged and green,     Beneath the wild-grape's leaves and gourd's,     Have housed themselves and rest unseen.     The butterfly and forest-bird     Are huddled on the same gnarled bough,     From which, like some rain-voweled word     That dampness hoarsely utters now,     The tree-toad's voice is vaguely heard.     I crouch and listen; and again     The woods are filled with phantom forms     With shapes, grotesque in mystic train,     That rise and reach to me cool arms     Of mist; the wandering wraiths of rain.     I see them come; fantastic, fair;     Chill, mushroom-colored: sky and earth     Grow ghostly with their floating hair     And trailing limbs, that have their birth.     In wetness fungi of the air.     O wraiths of rain! O ghosts of mist!     Still fold me, hold me, and pursue!     Still let my lips by yours be kissed!     Still draw me with your hands of dew     Unto the tryst, the dripping tryst.