If ever I have laughed with the laughter of the creative
lightning, to which the long thunder of the deed followeth, grumblingly, but obediently:
Then from the womb of the night great shapes of cloud rose up and stood before the sun, and he crowned them with his glory, and in their hearts the
lightning quivered like a blood of fire.
The doctor's voice could scarcely be heard by his companions; but they could see his countenance calm as ever even amid the flashing of the
lightnings; he was watching the phenomena of phosphorescence produced by the fires of St.
"That is the track where the
lightning will go; at any moment, even now whilst we are speaking and searching, a fearful force may be loosed upon us.
As carefully as possible they descended this, the rain continuing to fall, the wind to blow, the
lightning to sizzle all about them and the thunder to boom in their ears.
Once the
lightning had begun, it went on in as rapid a succession of flashes as I have ever seen.
But she could not have seen his face if a flash of
lightning had not hidden the stars and revealed it.
Yonder, to windward, all is blackness of doom; but to leeward, homeward --I see it lightens up there; but not with the
lightning. At that moment in one of the intervals of profound darkness, following the flashes, a voice was heard at his side; and almost at the same instant a volley of thunder peals rolled overhead.
"You see," said the
Lightning, as it crept past him inch by inch, "I can travel considerably faster than you."
Drenched with the pelting rain, confused by the deafening thunder, and bewildered by the glare of the forked
lightning, they would have passed a solitary house without being aware of its vicinity, had not a man, who was standing at the door, called lustily to them to enter.
Succeeding years, too wild for song, Then rolled like tropic storms along, Where, through the garish lights that fly Dying along the troubled sky, Lay bare, through vistas thunder-riven, The blackness of the general Heaven, That very blackness yet doth Ring Light on the
lightning's silver wing.
It thundered, and bright flashes of
lightning now and again shot across the sky, turning it into a sea of fire.
In the silence which followed that discovery, a first flash of
lightning passed across the window and the low roll of thunder sounded the outbreak of the storm.
The thick black cloud was cleft, and still The Moon was at its side: Like waters shot from some high crag, The
lightning fell with never a jag, A river steep and wide.
the coming storm threatening more and more, with now and then a little shiver of wind, a faint show of
lightning, and dull grumblings of distant thunder.
