The day is gray and chill and bleak, The sombre winter rain falls cold In many a sad and slanting streak. Forlorn, dejected, unconsoled, A lonely sparrow sits and grieves Beneath the drab and dripping eaves. Exposed to wind and cold and rain, A lank, wet cat pursues its way In search of food, for it would fain Brave snarling wind and blinding spray, And, shivering in the stinging blast, Enjoys at last a scant repast. The trees are gaunt and stark and grim, As steadily the icy streams Pour down the whole day long; no limb Will yield to lashing wind, which screams Above the dull and dismal sound Of plopping rain upon the ground. Unheated rooms, through frosted glass, See glacial fingers of the rain Tear at the panes as if, alas, It longer cannot bear the pain Of fiendish wind that cuts and whips, Then stoops to kiss its gelid lips. A lone pedestrian, homeward bound, Scans sullen skies for sign of change; But all above, below, around, Gives naught of promise to his range ... And, though the day begins to wane, Still leaden gloom and whistling rain! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BUT NOT TO ME by SARA TEASDALE THE NEW CHURCH ORGAN by WILLIAM MCKENDREE CARLETON LACK OF STEADFASTNESS; BALLAD by GEOFFREY CHAUCER TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN: THE FIRST DAY: PRELUDE. THE WAYSIDE INN by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 93 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI VALENTINES TO MY MOTHER: 1878 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE MAHOGANY TREE by WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY |