An autumn poem

[wellinghall]

No sun--no moon!
No morn--no noon--
No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--
No sky--no earthly view--
No distance looking blue--
No road--no street--no "t' other side the way"--
No end to any Row--
No indications where the Crescents go--
No top to any steeple--
No recognitions of familiar people--
No courtesies for showing 'em--
No knowing 'em!
To traveling at all--no locomotion,
No inkling of the way--no notion--
No go--by land or ocean--
No mail--no post--
No news from any foreign coast--
No park--no ring--no afternoon gentility--
No company--no nobility--
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member--
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees.
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds.
November!

Thomas Hood

Comments

[hyalma.livejournal.com]

Impressive. I like November, but I feel the convincingness of this poem no less because of that.

[tree_and_leaf]

Heh. Yesterday was a gorgeous day. Today is a holiday, and yesterday I went to bed thinking cheerfully, well, it was a clear night, and if it's nice tomorrow I can go hillwalking.

I woke to find the fog sitting right down on the town. Bah!

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Well it's quite a nice day here in Brum. Slight shortage of hills to walk, though.

[tree_and_leaf]

You can't have everything!

Actually, the day's cheered up a lot, but the visibility is still absolutely rotten once you get any height at all.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

That about sums it up. Has he got anything to say about February?

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Don't you go knocking February! Grrr *agressive defensive stance*

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Rich meanings of the prophet-Spring adorn,
Unseen, this colourless sky of folded showers,
And folded winds; no blossom in the bowers;
A poet's face asleep in this grey morn.
Now in the midst of the old world forlorn
A mystic child is set in these still hours.
I keep this time, even before the flowers,
Sacred to all the young and the unborn.
- Alice Meynell, In February

[estiel.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's lovely.