Fork’d flittings quiver’d through the mournful vast;

Th’ inured coachman even sat aghast;

For Heaven’s artill’ry now had vollied forth

A deaf’ning roar,—which shook the stable earth.

At length the storm subsides; the clouds disperse;

The welcome orb afresh begins t’immerse

The varied herbage, and the waving folds;

Encompassing the furze and heathery wolds:

And all was calm again—save one poor soul,

Whose head still rang with the last thunder-roll.