E knew it would rain, for all the morn 
A spirit on slender ropes of mist 
Was lowering its golden buckets down 
Into the vapory amethyst. 
Of marshes and swamps and dismal fens-- 
Scooping the dew that lay in the flowers, 
Dipping the jewels out of the sea, 
To sprinkle them over the land in showers. 
We knew it would rain, for the poplars showed 
The white of their leaves, the amber grain 
Shrunk in the wind--and the lightning now 
Is tangled in tremulous skeins of rain!