| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | A Summer Tempest | | By James Ernest Nesmith (1856–1898) |
| | | ALONG the hills the breathless forests dream, | |
| Unvisited, and in the yellow light | |
| The grass grows golden, and the birches white | |
| Print their pale shadows in the darken’d stream, | |
| Each twig distinct imprest; no warblers seem | 5 |
| To stir the stagnant air, no wing takes flight; | |
| Athwart the west, in sombre purple dight, | |
| The silver, silent lightnings sharply gleam. | |
| Anon a spreading gloom creeps up the sky, | |
| The Tempest drapes the azure dome in black, | 10 |
| Rolls up the rain, the whirlwind, and the rack, | |
| And thunders in the roaring torrent by; | |
| And every jewelled spray, afar and nigh, | |
| Sparkles and glitters in its dewy track. | | | | |
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