| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | II. Midsummer | | By William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) |
| | | A POWER is on the earth and in the air, | |
| From which the vital spirit shrinks afraid, | |
| And shelters him in nooks of deepest shade, | |
| From the hot steam and from the fiery glare. | |
| Look forth upon the earth,—her thousand plants | 5 |
| Are smitten; even the dark sun-loving maize | |
| Faints in the field beneath the torrid blaze; | |
| The herd beside the shaded fountain pants; | |
| For life is driven from all the landscape brown; | |
| The bird hath sought his tree, the snake his den, | 10 |
| The trout floats dead in the hot stream, and men | |
| Drop by the sun-stroke in the populous town: | |
| As if the Day of Fire had dawned, and sent | |
| Its deadly breath into the firmament. | | | | |
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