The Talk Of The Echoes
by
A FRAGMENT.
When the cock crows loud from the glen,
And the moor-cock chirrs from the heather,
What hear ye and see ye then,
Ye children of air and ether?
1st Echo.A thunder as of waves at the rising of the moon,
And a darkness on the graves though the day is at its noon.
2nd Echo. A springing as of grass though the air is damp and chill,
And a glimmer from the river that winds about the hill.
1st Echo. A lapse of crags that leant from the mountain’s earthen sheath,
And a shock of ruin sent on the river underneath.
2nd Echo. A sound as of a building that groweth fair and good,
And a piping of the thrushes from the hollow of the wood.
1st Echo. A wailing as of lambs that have wandered from the flock,
And a bleating of their dams that was answered from the rock.
2nd Echo. A breathing as of cattle in the shadow where they dream,
And a sound of children playing with the pebbles in the stream.
1st Echo. A driving as of clouds in the kingdom of the air,
And a tumult as of crowds that mingle everywhere.
2nd Echo. A waving of the grass, and a passing o’er the lakes,
And a shred of tempest-cloud in the glory when it breaks.