A SONNET. <br /> <br /> <br />A power is on the earth and in the air, <br />From which the vital spirit shrinks afraid, <br />And shelters him, in nooks of deepest shade, <br />From the hot steam and from the fiery glare. <br />Look forth upon the earth--her thousand plants <br />Are smitten; even the dark sun-loving maize <br />Faints in the field beneath the torrid blaze; <br />The herd beside the shaded fountain pants; <br />For life is driven from all the landscape brown; <br />The bird has sought his tree, the snake his den, <br />The trout floats dead in the hot stream, and men <br />Drop by the sun-stroke in the populous town: <br />As if the Day of Fire had dawned, and sent <br />Its deadly breath into the firmament.<br /><br />William Cullen Bryant<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/midsummer-3/
