The Storm - in Three Voices

1st voice   Dark
2nd voice   Dark was the night
3rd voice   Dark was the night, over valley and night
1st voice   And looming clouds
2nd voice   In sable shrouds,
3rd voice   Veiled heaven, and hid the light.
All            Heavy they swept, as the god of the storm
                O'er their black frowning fronts reared the height of his form.

1st voice   Right on—
2nd voice   Right onward they roll’d,
3rd voice   And enwrapt in their fold,
All            The shuddering earth that shrunk back to behold.

1st voice   All silent,
2nd voice   All silent the world,
3rd voice   Was sleeping that night,
1st voice   When forth
2nd voice   O’er the earth,,
3rd voice   Broad gleaming and bright.
All            Flashed the quivering beam
                Of the lightning’s stream,
                And down were the heavy toned thunderbolts hurled.

1st voice   Lightnings flashing,
2nd voice   Thunders crashing,
3rd voice   Rain drops dashing,
1st voice   Descending,
2nd voice   And belnding
3rd voice   In discord unending.
1st voice   Confound,
2nd voice   Sight, sound,
3rd voice   Air and wave and solid ground.
1st voice   There,
2nd voice   Glare,
3rd voice   Through the air.
All.            Baleful meteors, streaming afar,
                 Bright as the eye of the shooting star.
1st voice   And the shock
2nd voice   Of the storm,
3rd voice   Yon rock’s vast form,
1st voice   Has shattered,
2nd voice   And battered
3rd voice   Its crest to the dust which the ruin did mock,
1st voice   The firm oak is bent
2nd voice   And its branches are rent,
3rd voice   By the bolts which hiss through the firmament.
All.            As the Spirit of Wrath, o’er the arch of the sky,
                 On his whirlwind-borne chariot rides triumphing by.

1st voice   Behold!
2nd voice   Now have roll’d,
3rd voice   The dark clouds away;,
1st voice   And bright,
2nd voice   O’er the height,
3rd voice   Of the East, comes the day;
All.            And nature once more, from the terrible past,
                 In beauty of sunlight and music of birds,
                 In sparkling of dew drops and lowing of herds,
                 Is awaken’d to brightening and ?? at last.