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Low, muttered roars a mask-ed fury tell, 

 As restless with wrathful power, they swell, 

 *Till, lowering far, they hang the Heavens in 



gloom, 



And bind the earth within a vapory tomb 

 The howling winds a fearful music make, 

 Preluding fiercely, to the tempest s rack : 

 While fleecy clouds, as heralds, scour the air, 

 And bid the laggarts to the coming war. 

 Hark ! from the North, that peal, like signal gun 

 Declares th aerial war begun 

 One sheet of flame now pales. the lurid sky, 

 Then bursts, in awful roar, great Heaven s artillery. 

 Huge clouds, like warring vessels, sail the skies, 

 Hurling their bolts, as each to each replies 

 Their ceaseless thunders beat the throbbing air, 

 Each peal responsive to the lightning s glare, 

 Which ever through the gloom, like forked tongue 

 Of fiery serpent, darts the heavens among. 

 Contending whirlwinds from all quarters rise, 

 And floods now burst from forth the teeming skies, 

 Their furious waters all the earth invade 

 All trembling Nature prostrate sinks, dismayed 

 Awe-stricken man now owns his feeble powers, 

 And Him that rules the raging storm adores. 



