Wet Weather

Clime —
And what it can do! For so long a time
He had been in the south,
In a land of drouth
His beauty was sun-struck and harried:
One looked where it was wont to rise
Just over the temples, looked in vain;
But now that he has tarried
A few short weeks in our trickling rain.
Under skies that are blue for just an hour,
And then close for a storm: ah, now
There is lambency on his brow;
His lashes and eyes
Are touched with the trembling, silver dyes
Of moonlight, when the moon is lost;
While the dazzling hazes
By which the warm, damp cheek is crost
In this favouring air, increase the power
Of his mouth, — a dash of pomegranate-flower,
Firm, vermeil, brilliant! Thine the praise is —
O England, get
More steamy in thy summer wet!
Shower after shower.
With thy storms, with thy skies of an azure hour.
Enhance the grace,
Quicken the crystals of his face!