Before the Rain

Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1836 (Portsmouth) – 1907 (Boston)



E knew it would rain, for all the morn
A spirit on slender ropes of mist
Was lowering its golden buckets down
Into the vapory amethyst.
Of marshes and swamps and dismal fens--
Scooping the dew that lay in the flowers,
Dipping the jewels out of the sea,
To sprinkle them over the land in showers.
We knew it would rain, for the poplars showed
The white of their leaves, the amber grain
Shrunk in the wind--and the lightning now
Is tangled in tremulous skeins of rain!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

26 sec read
48

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCBDDDDEFGF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 474
Words 89
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 12

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Thomas Bailey Aldrich was a poet novelist traveler and editor more…

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