II

     Ah, what is Marriage, says each pouting maid,
     When she who wedded with the soldier hides
     At home as good as widowed in the shade,
     A lighthouse to the girls that would be brides: 
     Nor dares to give a lad an ogle, nor
     To dream of dancing, but must hang and moan,
     Her husband in the war,
     And she to lie alone. 
     Rain!  O the glad refresher of the grain! 
     And welcome waterspouts, had we sweet rain!

     III

     They have not known; they are not in the stream;
     Light as the flying seed-ball is their play,
     The silly maids! and happy souls they seem;
     Yet Grief would not change fates with such as they. 
     They have not struck the roots which meet the fires
     Beneath, and bind us fast with Earth, to know
     The strength of her desires,
     The sternness of her woe. 
     Rain!  O the glad refresher of the grain! 
     And welcome waterspouts, had we sweet rain!

     IV

     Now, shepherd, see thy word, where without shower
     A borderless low blotting Westward spreads. 
     The hall-clock holds the valley on the hour;
     Across an inner chamber thunder treads: 
     The dead leaf trips, the tree-top swings, the floor
     Of dust whirls, dropping lumped:  near thunder speaks,
     And drives the dames to door,
     Their kerchiefs flapped at cheeks. 
     Rain!  O the glad refresher of the grain! 
     And welcome waterspouts of blessed rain!

     V

     Through night, with bedroom window wide for air,
     Lay Susan tranced to hear all heaven descend: 
     And gurgling voices came of Earth, and rare,
     Past flowerful, breathings, deeper than life’s end,
     From her heaved breast of sacred common mould;
     Whereby this lone-laid wife was moved to feel
     Unworded things and old
     To her pained heart appeal. 
     Rain!  O the glad refresher of the grain! 
     And down in deluges of blessed rain!

     VI

     At morn she stood to live for ear and sight,
     Love sky or cloud, or rose or grasses drenched. 
     A lureful devil, that in glow-worm light
     Set languor writhing all its folds, she quenched. 
     But she would muse when neighbours praised her face,
     Her services, and staunchness to her mate: 
     Knowing by some dim trace,
     The change might bear a date. 
     Rain!  O the glad refresher of the grain! 
     Thrice beauteous is our sunshine after rain!

     Mother to babe

     I

     Fleck of sky you are,
     Dropped through branches dark,
     O my little one, mine! 
     Promise of the star,
     Outpour of the lark;
     Beam and song divine.

     II

     See this precious gift,
     Steeping in new birth
     All my being, for sign
     Earth to heaven can lift,
     Heaven descend on earth,
     Both in one be mine!