POWDER'D HEAVENS

Lo, the sky is shrouded, and the sun is swallow’d whole;
The rain descendeth not as water, but as dust and powder,
That from on high is pour’d upon the barren land.
The air itself doth clap like thunder without rain,
And every breath becometh ash within the breast.

If heaven raineth dust instead of mercy—
what seed mayst thou sow therein?