A pulseless languor lay upon the sea,
The solemn mountains rested in their calm,
The mighty forests slumbered, and the palm
Above the warm sands brooded breathlessly;
The heavens bent down in dark expectancy,
Then suddenly the clouds burst 'midst the strain,
Drenching the woods with torrents of warm rain,
Till in their deeps they roared tumultuously!
It ceased;—the sun broke forth with fire, and then,
O how the birds sang! Such a joyous choir
Woke in the heart of hidden glade and glen
As when a god immortal strikes his lyre
In deep Parna**ian groves afar from men,
'Mid smoke and incense from his altar fire.