The Wind’s Tidings In August 1870

'OH voice of summer winds among the trees, What soft news art thou bringing to us here? Dost thou come whispering of hushed scenes like these, Languid in sunlight, while the drowsy deer Couch placidly at rest, and from the brake The song of fearless wild birds rings out clear, And groves and meadows and this baby lake Are dreaming to thy dreaming lullaby? Art telling of hushed scenes like these? Awake, Answer, sweet dying wind, and do not die.' And the voice of the faint winds, dying away, Answered me, 'Nay.' 'Oh voice of summer winds, then art thou come From fluttering in the tangles of the vines Beside the blue blue seas, in the far home Of the dim olives and the dusky pines, And from the cypress bosks, and where the air Grows lush and heavy 'twixt the dark starred lines Of orange hedge a-bloom, and the wide glare Floods soft round hills with southern perfect day? Answer again, low voice, hast thou been there? Art telling of the dreamland far away?' And the voice of the winds sighed over my head, 'Nay, nay,' it said. 'Oh sweet low voice of winds, whose wavering flights Smoothly, like flickering swallows, come and go, What, is thy tale of where the ceaseless heights Rest white and cloudlike in their virgin snow? Hast thou been wandering round the scented firs, And where the dauntless shrub-flowers bud and blow Against the pale chill sea that never stirs, And where the midway foam hangs o'er the cleft? Speak, slumbrous voice, to slumbrous listeners, Art telling us of these that thou hast left?' And the voice of the dying winds breathed low, 'Nay, nay; not so.' 'Oh voice of dying winds, make sweet reply, Whence hast thou come? What does thy whisper say? Answer, oh dying voice, and do not die.' It whispered in a hush, 'The dead men lay Fallen together like the sickled grain; Onward still dashed the whirlwind and the fray; The thunders and the tramplings shook the plain; There was the crash and clash of host to host, Throes, and the blood-pools widening, death and pain.' And waning in a murmur it was lost.