A Calamitous Day

This is no mere rejoicing thing, The sun does peep again, It pricks the roads with beamy swords And dries the humid grain. The water gleams with golden sheen, A mirror on the lake, As if the glass in daylight burns With ripples at its wake. Today it is a warm delight, The moment I thought so, A dark and dusky cloud obscured The pleasant morning glow. At once it called its sable mates, With wrathful vapour swelled, They rolled and rushed, and thereon squashed, But never, never quelled. As if it were a true display Of demons talking loud, They deal in lies, and cleave the skies, And wrap them in a shroud. The gales possessed by unjust souls Fly off a million miles, The casements clack and clutter all, Fall victim to their wiles. Ofttimes it pours from unknown source, Breaking the bowl of night, A darkened sky is sundered by Electric veins of light. From thence it throws loud, loud bellows, The devil’s dance resumes, It rips and whips the boats and ships, All earthly noise subsumes. He grumbles for some unknown cause, And rumbles all again, It shakes the child with thunders wild And ceaseless rapid rain. He shouts, and clouts the unseen air, While tumbles many a toy, The fearsome din sprang from the sin I cannot but destroy.