A Whirl-Blast from Behind the Hill + 

A whirl-blast from behind the hill + 

Rushed o’er the wood with startling sound: + 

Then all at once the air was still, + 

And showers of hail-stones pattered round. + 

Where leafless Oaks towered high above, + 

I sat within an undergrove + 

Of tallest hollies, tall and green; + 

A fairer bower was never seen. + 

From year to year the spacious floor + 

With withered leaves is covered o’er, + 

You could not lay a hair between: + 

And all the year the bower is green. + 

But see! where’er the hailstones drop + 

The withered leaves all skip and hop, + 

There’s not a breeze⁠—no breath of air⁠— + 

Yet here, and there, and every where + 

Along the floor, beneath the shade + 

By those embowering hollies made, + 

The leaves in myriads jump and spring, + 

As if with pipes and music rare + 

Some Robin Good-fellow were there, + 

And all those leaves, that jump and spring, + 

Were each a joyous, living thing. + 

Oh! grant me Heaven a heart at ease, + 

That I may never cease to find, + 

Even in appearances like these, + 

Enough to nourish and to stir my mind! + 