Three Palinodias. III - Rain And Rainbow.

During a heavy storm it chanced     That from his room a cockney glanced     At the fierce tempest as it broke,     While to his neighbour thus he spoke:     "The thunder has our awe inspired,     Our barns by lightning have been fired,     Our sins to punish, I suppose;     But in return, to soothe our woes,     See how the rain in torrents fell,     Making the harvest promise well!     But is't a rainbow that I spy     Extending o'er the dark-grey sky?     With it I'm sure we may dispense,     The colour'd cheat! The vain pretence!"     Dame Iris straightway thus replied:     "Dost dare my beauty to deride?     In realms of space God station'd me     A type of better worlds to be     To eyes that from life's sorrows rove     In cheerful hope to Heav'n above,     And, through the mists that hover here     God and his precepts blest revere.     Do thou, then, grovel like the swine,     And to the ground thy snout confine,     But suffer the enlighten'd eye     To feast upon my majesty."