January
Welcome, wild North-easter!
Shame it is to see
Odes to every zephyr:
Ne’er a verse to thee.
.....
Tired we are of summer,
Tired of gaudy glare,
Showers soft and steaming,
Hot and breathless air.
Tired of listless dreaming
Through the lazy day:
Jovial wind of winter
Turn us out to play!
Sweep the golden reed-beds;
Crisp the lazy dyke;
Hunger into madness
Every plunging pike.
Fill the lake with wild-fowl;
Fill the marsh with snipe;
While on dreary moorlands
Lonely curlew pipe.
Through the black fir forest
Thunder harsh and dry,
Shattering down the snow-flakes
Off the curdled sky.
.....
Come; and strong within us
Stir the Viking’s blood;
Bracing brain and sinew:
Blow, thou wind of God!
Ode to North-east Wind.