I
There was never winter, summer only: roses,
Pink and white and red,
Shining down the warm rich garden closes;
Quiet trees and lawns of dappled shadow,
Silver lilies, whisper of mignonette,
Cloth-of-gold of buttercups outspread;
Good gold sun that kissed me when we met,
Shadows of floating clouds on sunny meadow.
In the hay-field, scented, grey,
Loving life and love, I lay;
By fresh airs blown, drifted into sleep;
Slept and dreamed there. Winter was the dream.
II
Summer never was, was always winter only;
Cold and ice and frost
Only, driven by the ice-wind, lonely,
In a world of strangers, in the welter
Of the puddles and the spiteful wind and sleet,
Blinded by the spitting hailstones, lost
In a bitter unfamiliar street,
I found a doorway, crouched there for just shelter,
Crouched and fought in vain for breath,
Cursed the cold and wished for death;
Crouched there, gathered somehow warmth to sleep;
Slept and dreamed there. Summer was the dream.
(Edith Nesbit)
More Poetry from Edith Nesbit:
Edith Nesbit Poems based on Topics: Love, World, Dreams, Death & Dying, Sleep, Summer, Winter, Silver- The Moat House (Edith Nesbit Poems)
- Tekel (Edith Nesbit Poems)
- After Sixty Years (Edith Nesbit Poems)
- Two Christmas Eves (Edith Nesbit Poems)
- Absolution (Edith Nesbit Poems)
- At The Gate (Edith Nesbit Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Love Poems, World Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Dreams Poems, Sleep Poems, Summer Poems, Winter Poems, Silver PoemsBased on Keywords: welter, hailstones, mignonette, spiteful, ice-wind, hay-field, cloth-of-gold
- The Vision Of Piers Plowman - Part 14 (William Langland Poems)
- Trivia ; or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London : Book III (John Gay Poems)
- Hermann And Dorothea - IX. Urania (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Poems)
- Christ's Triumph after Death : Canto IV. Christ's Victory and Triumph (Giles Fletcher Jr Poems)
- Childhood (Henry Kirke White Poems)