| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | The Fountains of the Rain | | By Edith Matilda Thomas (1854–1925) |
| | | THE MERCHANT clouds that cruise the sultry sky, | |
| As soon as they have spent their freight of rain, | |
| Plot how the cooling thrift they may regain: | |
| All night along the river-marsh they lie, | |
| And at their ghostly looms swift shuttles ply, | 5 |
| To weave them nets wherewith the streams to drain; | |
| And often in the sea they cast a seine, | |
| And draw it, dripping, past some headland high. | |
| Many a slender naiad, with a sigh, | |
| Is in their arms uptaken from the plain; | 10 |
| The trembling myrmidons of dew remain | |
| No longer than the flash of morning’s eye, | |
| Then back unto their misty fountains fly: | |
| This is the source and journey of the rain. | | | | |
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