Stanzas Composed During a Thunderstorm

1. 1Chill and mirk is the nightly blast,
2. 2Where Pindus' mountains rise,
3. 3And angry clouds are pouring fast
4. 4The vengeance of the skies.

1. 5Our guides are gone, our hope is lost,
2. 6And lightnings, as they play,
3. 7But show where rocks our path have crost,
4. 8Or gild the torrent's spray.

1. 9Is yon a cot I saw, though low?
2. 10When lightning broke the gloom--
3. 11How welcome were its shade!--ah, no!
4. 12'Tis but a Turkish tomb.

1. 13Through sounds of foaming waterfalls,
2. 14I hear a voice exclaim--
3. 15My way-worn countryman, who calls
4. 16On distant England's name.

1. 17A shot is fired--by foe or friend?
2. 18Another--'tis to tell
3. 19The mountain-peasants to descend,
4. 20And lead us where they dwell.

1. 21Oh! who in such a night will dare
2. 22To tempt the wilderness?
3. 23And who 'mid thunder-peals can hear
4. 24Our signal of distress?

1. 25And who that heard our shouts would rise
2. 26To try the dubious road?
3. 27Nor rather deem from nightly cries
4. 28That outlaws were abroad.

1. 29Clouds burst, skies flash, oh, dreadful hour!
2. 30More fiercely pours the storm!
3. 31Yet here one thought has still the power
4. 32To keep my bosom warm.

1. 33While wandering through each broken path,
2. 34O'er brake and craggy brow;
3. 35While elements exhaust their wrath,
4. 36Sweet Florence, where art thou?

1. 37Not on the sea, not on the sea--
2. 38Thy bark hath long been gone:
3. 39Oh, may the storm that pours on me,
4. 40Bow down my head alone!

1. 41Full swiftly blew the swift Siroc,
2. 42When last I pressed thy lip;
3. 43And long ere now, with foaming shock,
4. 44Impelled thy gallant ship.

1. 45Now thou art safe; nay, long ere now
2. 46Hast trod the shore of Spain;
3. 47'Twere hard if aught so fair as thou
4. 48Should linger on the main.

1. 49And since I now remember thee
2. 50In darkness and in dread,
3. 51As in those hours of revelry
4. 52Which Mirth and Music sped;

1. 53Do thou, amid the fair white walls,
2. 54If Cadiz yet be free,
3. 55At times from out her latticed halls
4. 56Look o'er the dark blue sea;

1. 57Then think upon Calypso's isles,
2. 58Endeared by days gone by;
3. 59To others give a thousand smiles,
4. 60To me a single sigh.

1. 61And when the admiring circle mark
2. 62The paleness of thy face,
3. 63A half-formed tear, a transient spark
4. 64Of melancholy grace,

1. 65Again thou'lt smile, and blushing shun
2. 66Some coxcomb's raillery;
3. 67Nor own for once thou thought'st on one,
4. 68Who ever thinks on thee.

1. 69Though smile and sigh alike are vain,
2. 70When severed hearts repine,
3. 71My spirit flies o'er Mount and Main,
4. 72And mourns in search of thine.