Theodore Roethke




Mid-country Blow

All night and all day the wind roared in the trees,
Until I could think there were waves rolling as high as my bedroom floor;
When I stood at the window, an elm bough swept to my knees;
The blue spruce lashed like a surf at the door.

The second dawn I would not have believed:
The oak stood with each leaf stiff as a bell.
When I looked at the altered scene, my eye was undeceived,
But my ear still kept the sound of the sea like a shell.


spoken = David Juda