A RAIN-STORM IN SUMMER 121 



2. Imagine 'the traveller' a character in the opening chapter 

 of a story or novel : give an imaginative sketch of his past or 

 future history, or of both. 



3. How is the diction of these lines characteristic of the 

 literary style of eighteenth-century verse ? 



SIGNS OF RAIN 



THE hollow winds begin to blow, 



The clouds look black, the glass is low; 



The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep, 



The spiders from their cobwebs peep. 



Last night the sun went pale to bed, 



The moon in halos hid her head; 



The boding shepherd heaves a sigh, 



For see! a rainbow spans the sky. 



The walls are damp, the ditches smell; 

 10 Closed is the pink-eyed pimpernel. 



Hark how the chairs and tables crack ! 



Old Betty's joints are on the rack. 



Loud quack the ducks, the peacocks cry; 



The distant hills are seeming nigh. 



How restless are the snorting swine ! 



The busy flies disturb the kine. 



Low o'er the grass the swallow wings ; 



The cricket, too, how sharp he sings! 



Puss on the hearth, with velvet paws, 

 20 Sits wiping o'er her whiskered jaws. 



Through the clear stream the fishes rise, 



And nimbly catch the incautious flies. 



The glow-worms, numerous and bright, 



Illumed the dewy dell last night. 



