The Tornado

Dost thou love to list the rushing
Of the Tempest in its might?
Dost thou joy to see the gushing
Of the Torrent at its height?
Hasten forth while lurid gloaming
Waneth into wilder night,
O'er the troubled ocean, foaming
With a strange phosphoric light.

Lo, the sea-fowl, loudly screaming,
Seeks the shelter of the land;
And a signal light is gleaming
Where yon Vessel nears the strand:
Just at sun-set she was lying
All-becalmed upon the main;
Now, with sails in tatters flying,
She to sea-ward beats—in vain!

Hark! the long-unopened fountains
Of the clouds have burst at last;
And the echoes of the mountains
Lift their wailing voices fast:
Now a thousand rills are pouring
Their far-sounding waterfalls;
And the wrathful stream is roaring
High above its rocky walls.

Now the forest-trees are shaking,
Like bulrushes in the gale;
And the folded flocks are quaking
'Neath the pelting of the hail.
From the jungle-cumbered river
Comes a growl along the ground;
And the cattle start and shiver,
For they know full well the sound.

'Tis the lion, gaunt with hunger,
Glaring down the darkening glen;
But a fiercer Power and stronger
Drives him back into his den:
For the fiend Tornado rideth
Forth with F EAR , his maniac bride,
Who by shipwrecked shores abideth,
With the she-wolf by her side.

Heard ye not the Demon flapping
His exulting wings aloud?
And his Mate her mad hands clapping
From yon scowling thunder-cloud?
By the fire-flaucht's gleamy flashing
The doomed Vessel ye may spy,
With the billows o'er her dashing—
Hark (Oh God!) that fearful cry!

Twice two hundred human voices
In that shriek came on the blast!
Ha! the Tempest-Fiend rejoices—
For all earthly aid is past!
White as smoke the surge is showering
O'er the cliffs that sea-ward frown,
While the greedy gulf, devouring
Like a dragon, sucks them down!
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