A Thunderstorm

Archibald Lampman 1861 (Upper Canada) – 1899 (Ottawa, Canada)



A moment the wild swallows like a flight
  Of withered gust-caught leaves, serenely high,
  Toss in the windrack up the muttering sky.
  The leaves hang still. Above the weird twilight,
  The hurrying centres of the storm unite
  And spreading with huge trunk and rolling fringe,
  Each wheeled upon its own tremendous hinge,
  Tower darkening on. And now from heaven's height,
  With the long roar of elm-trees swept and swayed,
 And pelted waters, on the vanished plain
 Plunges the blast. Behind the wild white flash
 That splits abroad the pealing thunder-crash,
 Over bleared fields and gardens disarrayed,
 Column on column comes the drenching rain.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 17, 2023

31 sec read
69

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAACCADEFFAE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 651
Words 105
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Archibald Lampman

Archibald Lampman FRSC was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in English." Lampman is classed as one of Canada's Confederation Poets, a group which also includes Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Duncan Campbell Scott. more…

All Archibald Lampman poems | Archibald Lampman Books

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