THE lake's dark breast <br />Is all unrest, <br />It heaves with a sob and a sigh. <br />Like a tremulous bird, <br />From its slumber stirred, <br />The moon is a-tilt in the sky. <br />From the silent deep <br />The waters sweep, <br />But faint on the cold white stones, <br />And the wavelets fly <br />With a plaintive cry <br />O'er the old earth's bare, bleak bones. <br />And the spray upsprings <br />On its ghost-white wings, <br />And tosses a kiss at the stars; <br />While a water-sprite, <br />In sea-pearls dight, <br />Hums a sea-hymn's solemn bars. <br />Far out in the night, <br />On the wavering sight <br />I see a dark hull loom; <br />And its light on high, <br />Like a Cyclops' eye, <br />Shines out through the mist and gloom. <br />Now the winds well up <br />From the earth's deep cup, <br />And fall on the sea and shore, <br />And against the pier <br />The waters rear <br />And break with a sullen roar. <br />Up comes the gale, <br />And the mist-wrought veil <br />Gives way to the lightning's glare, <br />And the cloud-drifts fall, <br />A sombre pall, <br />O'er water, earth, and air. <br />The storm-king flies, <br />His whip he plies, <br />And bellows down the wind. <br />The lightning rash <br />With blinding flash <br />Comes pricking on behind. <br />Rise, waters, rise, <br />And taunt the skies <br />With your swift-flitting form. <br />Sweep, wild winds, sweep, <br />And tear the deep <br />To atoms in the storm. <br />And the waters leapt, <br />And the wild winds swept, <br />And blew out the moon in the sky, <br />And I laughed with glee, <br />It was joy to me <br />As the storm went raging by!<br /><br />Paul Laurence Dunbar<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-rising-of-the-storm/
