Announce thy coming, and thy way prepare?
No warning voice, no harbinger was thine,
Danger and fear seem’d past—but thou wert there!
Prophetic sounds along the earthquake’s path
Foretell the hour of nature’s awful throes;
And the volcano, ere it burst in wrath,
Sends forth some herald from its dread repose:
But thou, dark Spirit! swift and unforeseen,
Cam’st like the lightning’s flash, when heaven is all serene.