November

[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 this 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!
No 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
http://theotherpages.org/poems/hood01.html

Comments

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking of that at the bus stop this morning. The BBC's Monthly Outlook is entertainingly gloomy (http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/10209) this week.

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

There does seem to be a fair amount of vember, actually, when I look out of the window.

I normally like Winter for one week of the year, when skiing! Otherwise it is difficult not to be somewhat depressed by it.

[segh.livejournal.com]

"November is the horridest month - that's why I was born in it."

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

It is a good poem - partly for reminding us how much better we have it today than in Tom Hood's time :-) Big cities don't have anything like the same problem with smog since the clean air acts, travelling is not usually a difficulty, the post rarely gets delayed, and even if it does we can get our 'news from foreign coast' via the internet. And of course with central heating we don't really lack for warmth once we're indoors. I definitely suffer with the cold, and more so with the lack of light in shorter days, but this was a good reminder of how much worse things could be!