Scarce risen o’er the border line of sound.

It might have been the coursing of his blood,

Or thunder heard remotely, or a flood

Flung down a wooded valley far away.

Yet that had been no weather-breeding day;

‘Twould frost that night; amid the thirsty land

All streams ran thin; and when he pressed a hand

On either ear, the world seemed very still.

The deep-worn channel of the little rill

Here fell away to eastward, rising, rough