The Thunder Storm- by Albery Allson Whitman. Albery Allson Whitman was a 19th century African American poet who, despite being born into slavery, carved out a career for himself as a poet and orator. He served as a pastor throughout the south and mid-western regions of the United States. His poetry was universally well received and he became known as the “Poet Laureate of the Negro Race”.
He is included in the anthology African-American Poetry of the Nineteenth Century where his efforts are described as “attempts at full-blown Romantic poetry”. Some even compared his verse to that written by well-known American and British authors who wrote in the Romantic tradition. One of Whitman’s poems is called Ye Bards of England which extols the virtues of the great literary figures from English history and begins:
The Thunder Storm by Albery Allson Whitman
Lo! how the Heavens ponder now,
They look so still and moody!
And every leaf, and every bough,
Are in a dark deep study.
The very air has hushed its breath,
And pauses in its hushing,
To hear the clouds that still as death,
Are out of darkness rushing.
The lightnings in their vivid wrath,
The waving hills a starting,
Deep thro’ the cloud-sea cleave a path,
From shore to shore a darting.
Loud thunders roll within the flood,
And night peers on with wonder,
And seems to sigh, in pensive mood,
And whisper, “hear it thunder!”
Again the thunders shriek aloud,
Far o’er the distance roaring,
And now from every breaking cloud,
The sluicy floods are pouring.
Upon the roof, the dancing drops
Come down with splash and clatter,
The lightnings glare, their music stops —
Now louder ‘gins to patter;
As if to catch its breath, the rain
Were, when it thundered, pausing,
Then rushing on to make again
The time it had been losing.
