Who now enters here,
With his locks at the sere,
And a face like a boy?
Winter full of joy,
Young heart and old head,
Appetite for bread,
And a laugh like a lad
Who is glad.
With wind and with rain
He knocks upon the pane;
While he calls to the fire,
And the heart, leap higher!
Then palms on his knees,
As the long nights freeze,
He laughs like a boy
Full of joy.
With ice and with frost
He covers pools and post,
And, silver-new and bright,
He shows, on the night,
The moon shining through,
Like an upflung shoe,
While the stars glisten white
In the height.
With thick porridge cool,
Put in chair, put in stool;
For, with hunger sharp set,
Naught needs now to whet
Appetite the bold,
Edged up by the cold,
Where the eave ice slips
As it drips.
Now winter to the bird
Says, “Sleep on unstirred!
With bill under feather
Heed not the weather!
Though the sharp wind blow,
Though the dark cloud snow,
Yet at day comes the sun,
Little one.”
And then he says to love,
“With coverlet above,
When you shall hear the rain
You will turn again,
And whispering and warm,
With arm under arm,
And with breast unto breast,
You shall rest.”
(Dame Mary Gilmore DBE)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Night Poems, Faces Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Youth Poems, Fire Poems, Birds Poems, Snow Poems, Winter Poems, Laughter Poems, Weather PoemsBased on Keywords: porridge, unstirred, eave, upflung