![[frontispiece]](/images/authors/colour-portraits/banner-frontispiece.jpg)
![[section of text]](/images/screenshots/ECPA-snippet5.jpg)
![[poet writing]](/images/authors/colour-portraits/banner-poet.jpg)
[Page 95][Page 96][Page 99]
THUNDER.
1 SPIRIT of strength! to whom in wrath 'tis given,
2 To mar the earth and shake its vasty dome,
3 Behold the sombre robes whose gathering folds,
4 Thy secret majesty conceal. Their skirts
5 Spread on mid air move slow and silently,
6 O'er noon-day's beam thy sultry shroud is cast,
7 Advancing clouds from every point of heaven,
8 Like hosts of gathering foes in pitchy volumes,
9 Grandly dilated, clothe the fields of air,
10 And brood aloft o'er the empurpled earth.
11 Spirit of strength! it is thy awful hour;
12 The wind of every hill is laid to rest,
13 And far o'er sea and land deep silence reigns.
14 Wild creatures of the forest homeward hie,
15 And in their dens with fear unwonted cower;
16 Pride in the lordly palace is put down,
17 While in his humble cot the poor man sits
18 With all his family round him hushed and still,
19 In awful expectation. On his way
20 The traveller stands aghast and looks to heaven.
21 On the horizon's verge thy lightning gleams,
22 And the first utterance of thy deep voice
23 Is heard in reverence and holy fear.
24 From nearer clouds bright burst more vivid gleams,
25 As instantly in closing darkness lost;
26 Pale sheeted flashes cross the wide expanse
27 While over boggy moor or swampy plain,
28 A streaming cataract of flame appears,
29 To meet a nether fire from earth cast up,
30 Commingling terribly; appalling gloom
31 Succeeds, and lo! the rifted centre pours
32 A general blaze, and from the war of clouds,
33 Red, writhing falls the embodied bolt of heaven.
34 Then swells the roiling peal, full, deep'ning, grand,
[Page 97]35 And in its strength lifts the tremendous roar,
36 With mingled discord, rattling, hissing, growling;
37 Crashing like rocky fragments downward hurled,
38 Like the upbreaking of a ruined world,
39 In awful majesty the explosion bursts
40 Wide and astounding o'er the trembling land.
41 Mountain, and cliff, repeat the dread turmoil,
42 And all to man's distinctive senses known,
43 Is lost in the immensity of sound.
44 Peal after peal, succeeds with waning strength,
45 And hushed and deep each solemn pause between.
46 Upon the lofty mountain's side
47 The kindled forest blazes wide;
48 Huge fragments of the rugged steep
49 Are tumbled to the lashing deep;
50 Firm rooted in his cloven rock,
51 Crashing falls the stubborn oak.
52 The lightning keen in wasteful ire
53 Darts fiercely on the pointed spire,
54 Rending in twain the iron-knit stone,
55 And stately towers to earth are thrown.
[Page 98]56 No human strength may brave the storm,
57 Nor shelter skreen the shrinking form,
58 Nor castle wall its fury stay,
59 Nor massy gate impede its way:
60 It visits those of low estate,
61 It shakes the dwellings of the great,
62 It looks athwart the vaulted tomb,
63 And glares upon the prison's gloom.
64 Then dungeons black in unknown light,
65 Flash hideous on the wretches' sight,
66 And strangely groans the downward cell,
67 Where silence deep is wont to dwell.
68 Now eyes, to heaven up-cast, adore,
69 Knees bend that never bent before,
70 The stoutest hearts begin to fail,
71 And many a manly face is pale;
72 Benumbing fear awhile up-binds,
73 The palsied action of their minds,
74 Till waked to dreadful sense they lift their eyes,
75 And round the stricken corse shrill shrieks of horror rise.
76 Now rattling hailstones, bounding as they fall
77 To earth, spread motley winter o'er the plain,
78 Receding peals sound fainter on the ear,
79 And roll their distant grumbling far away:
80 The lightning doth in paler flashes gleam,
81 And through the rent cloud, silvered with his rays,
82 The sun on all this wild affray looks down,
83 As, high enthroned above all mortal ken,
84 A higher Power beholds the strife of men.
Text
- TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 170K / ZIP - 18K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
- Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 3.5K / ZIP - 1.9K)
Facsimile (Source Edition)
(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [40.17].)
Images
- Image #1 (JPEG - 4.7M)
- Image #2 (JPEG - 4.0M)
- Image #3 (JPEG - 4.9M)
- Image #4 (JPEG - 4.0M)
- Image #5 (JPEG - 4.6M)
All Images (PDF - 5.2M)
About this text
Author: Joanna Baillie
Themes:
nature
Genres:
blank verse; narrative verse
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851. Fugitive Verses. By Joanna Baillie, author of “Dramas on the Passions,“ etc. London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street. MDCCCXL., 1840, pp. 95-99. (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [40.17].)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Joanna Baillie
- ADDRESS TO A STEAM VESSEL. ()
- ADDRESS TO THE MUSES. ()
- THE BANISHED MAN, ON A DISTANT VIEW OF HIS COUNTRY, WHICH HE IS QUITTING FOR EVER. ()
- THE BLACK COCK, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH AIR, CALLED “THE NOTE OF THE BLACK COCK.” ()
- A CHEERFUL-TEMPERED LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- A CHILD TO HIS SICK GRANDFATHER. ()
- DEVOTIONAL SONG FOR A NEGRO CHILD. ()
- A DISAPPOINTMENT. ()
- THE ELDEN TREE. A BALLAD. ()
- EPILOGUE TO THE THEATRICAL REPRESENTATION AT STRAWBERRY HILL, WRITTEN BY JOANNA BAILLIE AND SPOKEN BY THE HON. ANNE S. DAMER, NOVEMBER, 1800. ()
- FRAGMENT OF A POEM. ()
- FY, LET US A' TO THE WEDDING. (AN AULD SANG NEW BUSKIT.) ()
- HOOLY AND FAIRLY. (FOUNDED ON AIN OLD SCOTCH SONG.) ()
- THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. ()
- A HYMN FOR THE KIRK. ()
- HYMN FOR THE SCOTCH KIRK. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- A HYMN. ()
- JOB XIII. 15. ()
- THE KITTEN. ()
- A LAMENTATION. ()
- LINES FOR A FRIEND'S ALBUM. ()
- LINES ON THE DEATH OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. ()
- LINES ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM SOTHEBY, ESQ. ()
- LINES TO A PARROT. ()
- LINES TO A TEAPOT. ()
- LINES TO AGNES BAILLIE ON HER BIRTHDAY. ()
- LONDON. ()
- LORD JOHN OF THE EAST, A Ballad. ()
- MALCOLM'S HEIR. A TALE OF WONDER. ()
- A MELANCHOLY LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- THE MERRY BACHELOR, (FOUNDED ON THE OLD SCOTCH SONG OF “WILLIE WAS A WANTON WAG.”) ()
- THE MOODY SEER, A BALLAD. ()
- A MOTHER TO HER WAKING INFANT. ()
- NIGHT SCENES OF OTHER TIMES. A Poem, in Three Parts. ()
- A NURSERY LESSON (DEVOTIONAL). ()
- A POETICAL OR SOUND-HEARTED LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- A PROUD LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- A REVERIE. ()
- RHYMES FOR CHANTING. ()
- RHYMES. ()
- A SAILOR'S SONG ()
- SCHOOL RHYMES FOR NEGRO CHILDREN. ()
- A SCOTCH SONG. ()
- SECOND DEVOTIONAL SONG. ()
- A SECOND HYMN FOR THE KIRK. ()
- SECOND NURSERY LESSON (ADMONITORY). ()
- SELECT VERSES FROM THE 147TH PSALM. ()
- SIR MAURICE. A Ballad. ()
- SONG WRITTEN FOR THE STRAWBERRY HILL FOUNDLING PLAY, AND SUNG BY MRS. JOURDAIN. ()
- SONG, (FOR A SCOTCH AIR.) ()
- A SONG, (WRITTEN FOR MR. STRUTHER'S COLLECTION OF SONGS.) ()
- SONG, A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SCOTCH SONG. ()
- SONG, CALLED THE COUNTRY LADY'S REVEILLIE. ()
- SONG, FOR AN IRISH AIR. ()
- SONG, FOR AN IRISH MELODY. ()
- SONG, POVERTY PARTS GOOD COMPANY, ()
- SONG, WOO'D AND MARRIED AND A', ()
- SONG, WRITTEN AT MR. THOMSON'S REQUEST, AS A KIND OF INTRODUCTION TO HIS IRISH MELODIES. ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH AIR, CALLED “THE NEW YEAR'S GIFT.” ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH AIR, CALLED “THE PURSUIT OF LOVE.” ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH MELODY. ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR AN IRISH AIR. ()
- A SONG, WRITTEN FOR AN IRISH MELODY. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONG. (TO THE SCOTCH AIR OF “MY NANNY O.”) ()
- ST. JOHN XXI. 1. ()
- ST. LUKE VII. 12. ()
- ST. LUKE XVIII. 16. ()
- ST. MATTHEW V. 9. ()
- A SUMMER'S DAY. ()
- THIRD DEVOTIONAL SONG. ()
- A THIRD HYMN FOR THE KIRK. ()
- THOUGHTS TAKEN FROM THE 93RD PSALM. ()
- TO A CHILD. ()
- TO MRS. SIDDONS. ()
- TO SOPHIA J. BAILLIE, AN INFANT. ()
- THE TRAVELLER BY NIGHT IN NOVEMBER. ()
- TWO BROTHERS. ()
- TWO SONGS. ()
- VERSES SENT TO MRS. BAILLIE ON HER BIRTHDAY, 1813. ()
- VERSES TO OUR OWN FLOWERY KIRTLED SPRING. ()
- VERSES WRITTEN IN FEBRUARY, 1827. ()
- VOLUNTEER'S SONG, WRITTEN IN 1803. ()
- A WINTER'S DAY. ()