IT was a bright and cheerful afternoon Towards the end of the sunny month of June, When the north wind congregates in crowds The floating mountains of the silver clouds From the horizon -- and the stainless sky Opens beyond them like eternity. All things rejoiced beneath the sun; the weeds, The river, and the cornfields, and the reeds; The willow leaves that glanced in the light breeze, And the firm foliage of the larger trees. It was a winter such as when birds die In the deep forests; and the fishes lie Stiffened in the translucent ice, which makes Even the mud and slime of the warm lakes A wrinkled cold as hard as brick; and when Among their children comfortable men Gather about great fires, and yet feel cold: Alas, then, for the homeless beggar old! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODE ON MELANCHOLY by JOHN KEATS TO MRS. MARTHA BLOUNT (ON HER BIRTHDAY, 1723) by ALEXANDER POPE AN HYMN IN HONOUR OF BEAUTY by EDMUND SPENSER OUR STATE by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER OUT OF THE VAST by AUGUSTUS WRIGHT BAMBERGER THE INVITATION by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD SONNET: TO A CRITIC by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON |