All Night The Lone Cicada

All night the lone cicada Kept shrilling through the rain, A voice of joy undaunted By unforgotten pain.

Down from the tossing branches Rang out the high refrain, By tumult undisheartened, By storm assailed in vain.

To looming vasts of mountain, To shadowy deeps of plain The ephemeral, brave defiance Adventured not in vain,--

Till to my faltering spirit, And to my weary brain, From loss and fear and failure My joy returned again.