| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | After Storm | | By Lola Ridge |
| | | WAS there a wind? | |
| Tap …. tap … | |
| Night pads upon the snow | |
| With moccasined feet, | |
| And it is still …. so still … | 5 |
| An eagle’s feather | |
| Might fall like a stone. | |
| |
| Could there have been a storm, | |
| Mad-tossing golden mane | |
| on the neck of the wind— | 10 |
| Tearing up the sky, | |
| loose-flapping like a tent | |
| about the ice-capped stars? | |
| |
| Cool, sheer and motionless, | |
| The frosted pines | 15 |
| Are jewelled with a million flaming points, | |
| That fling their beauty up in long white sheaves | |
| Till they catch hands with stars. | |
| Could there have been a wind | |
| That haled them by the hair, | 20 |
| And blinding | |
| Blue-forked | |
| Flowers of the lightning | |
| In their leaves? | |
| |
| Tap …. tap … | 25 |
| Slow-ticking centuries … | |
| Soft as bare feet upon the snow … | |
| Faint …. lulling as heard rain | |
| upon heaped leaves … | |
| So silence builds her wall | 30 |
| about a dream impaled. | | | | |
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