Page:The Farm and Fruit of Old a translation in verse of the 1st and 2nd Georgics of Virgil, by a market-gardener (1862).djvu/30

What good advice the monthly moon should read,
What sign should lull the storm, observing what
The hind must keep the herd around the cot.
Ere yet the lowering storm breaks o'er the land,
A sullen groundswell heaves along the strand, 414
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$On mountain heights dry snapping sounds are heard,
The booming shores bedrizzled are and blurr'd,
And soughs of wind sigh through the forest stirr'd.
The wave already scarce foregoes the hull,
When homeward from the offing flies the gull,
With screams borne inland by the blast; and when
Sea-coots play round the margin of the fen; 421
The heron quits the marsh where she was bred,
And soars upon a cloud far overhead.
Nay, oft when storms are gathering, thou shalt spy
The meteor stars shoot headlong down the sky,
And, streaking the dark canopy of night, 426
Behind them draw a wake of flickering white:
Along the ground flies chaff and foliage sere
And dancing feathers race across the mere.
It thunders from the head-quarters of the North,
With Eastern halls and Western pealing forth;