After the Rain

THE rain has ceased, and in my room

   The sunshine pours an airy flood;

And on the church's dizzy vane

   The ancient cross is bathed in blood.

From out the dripping ivy leaves,

   Antiquely carven, gray and high,

A dormer, facing westward, looks

   Upon the village like an eye.

And now it glimmers in the sun,

   A globe of gold, a disk, a speck;

And in the belfry sits a dove

   With purple ripples on her neck.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Index to poems in the collection by Thomas Bailey Aldrich