The Storm

O GRIP the earth, ye forest trees, Grip well the earth to-night, The Storm-God rides across the seas To greet the morning light. All clouds that wander through the skies Are tangled in his net, The frightened stars have shut their eyes, The breakers fume and fret. The birds that cheer the woods all day Now tremble in their nests, The giant branches round them sway, The wild wind never rests. The squirrel and the cunning fox Have hurried to their holes, Far off, like distant earthquake shocks, The muffled thunder rolls. In scores of hidden woodland dells, Where no rough winds can harm, The timid wild-flowers toss their bells In reasonless alarm. Only the mountains rear their forms, Silent and grim and bold; To them the voices of the storms Are as a tale re-told. They saw the stars in heaven hung, They heard the great Sea's birth, They know the ancient pain that wrung The entrails of the Earth. Sprung from great Nature's royal lines, They share her deep repose,– Their rugged shoulders robed in pines, Their foreheads crowned with snows. But now there comes a lightning flash, And now on hill and plain The charging clouds in fury dash, And blind the world with rain.