  The unruly member (for relief Of aching head) clacks without care; Pastures lie sullen; hung with grief The steading: thunder binds the air. Gulls on the blue sea-surface rock: The cows move lowing to scant shade; Jess lays aside the half-worked smock, Dan, in his ditch, lets fall the spade. Now swoops the outrageous hurricane With lightning in steep pitchfork jags; The blanched hill leaps in sheeted rain, Sea masses white to assault the crags. Such menace tottering overhead, Old Jess for ague scolds no more; She sees grey bobtail flung down dead Lightning-blazed by the barn door— Wonder and panic chase our grief, Purge our thick distempered blood; Man, cattle, harvest shock and sheaf, Stagger below the sluicing flood.... |
|
