Midsummer

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h3>MIDSUMMER.</h3> <p class="poem"> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">A power is on the earth and in the air</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">From which the vital spirit shrinks afraid,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">And shelters him, in nooks of deepest shade,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">From the hot steam and from the fiery glare.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Look forth upon the earth&mdash;her thousand plants</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Are smitten; even the dark sun-loving maize</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Faints in the field beneath the torrid blaze;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">The herd beside the shaded fountain pants;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">For life is driven from all the landscape brown;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">The bird has sought his tree, the snake his den,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">The trout floats dead in the hot stream, and men</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Drop by the sun-stroke in the populous town;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">As if the Day of Fire had dawned, and sent</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Its deadly breath into the firmament.</span><br/> <span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />