Eyes with bursting terror gaze

On the sun's portentous blaze,

Through the wide horizon gleaming,

Like a blood-red banner streaming;

While like chariots from afar,

Armed for elemental war,

[Pg 42]

Clouds in quick succession rise,

Darkness spreads o'er all the skies;

And a lurid twilight gloom

Closes o'er earth's living tomb!

Nature's pulse has ceased to play,—

Night usurps the crown of day,—

Every quaking heart is still,

Conscious of the coming ill.

Lo, the fearful pause is past,

The awful tempest bursts at last!

Torrents sweeping down amain

With a deluge flood the plain;

The rocks are rent, the mountains reel,

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