MIDSUMMER - by William Cullen Bryant

MIDSUMMER  by William Cullen Bryant     A power is on the earth and in the air,     From which the vital spirit shrinks afraid,     And it shelters him, in the nooks of the deepest shade,     From the hot steam and from the fiery glare.     Look forward to the earth-her thousand plants     It smitten, even the dark sun-loving maize     Faints in the field below the torrid blaze;     The herd beside the shaded fountain pants;     For life is driven from all the landscape brown;     The bird has sought his tree, the snake his day,     The trout floats dead in the hot stream, and men     Drop by the sun-stroke in the populated city;     As if the Day of Fire had dawned and Sent     Its deadly breath into the firmament.