THE RAIN-BIRD

High on the tufted baobab-tree

To-night a rain-bird sang to me

A simple song, of three notes only,

That made the wilderness more lonely;

For in my brain it echoed nearly,

Old village church bells chiming clearly:

The sweet cracked bells, just out of tune,

Over the mowing grass in June —

Over the mowing grass, and meadows

Where the low sun casts long shadows.

And cuckoos call in the twilight

From elm to elm, in level flight.

Now through the evening meadows move

Slow couples of young folk in love,

Who pause at every crooked stile

And kiss in the hawthorn's shade the while:

Like pale moths the summer frocks

Hover between the beds of phlox,

And old men, feeling it is late,

Cease their gossip at the gate,

Till deeper still the twilight grows,

And night blossometh, like a rose

Full of love and sweet perfume,

Whose heart most tender stars illume.

Here the red sun sank like lead,

And the sky blackened overhead;

Only the locust chirped at me

From the shadowy baobab-tree.