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Christina Rossetti: Poems

Winter Rain


Every valley drinks,

Every dell and hollow:

Where the kind rain sinks and sinks,

Green of Spring will follow.


Yet a lapse of weeks

Buds will burst their edges,

Strip their wool-coats, glue-coats, streaks,

In the woods and hedges;


Weave a bower of love

For birds to meet each other, 10

Weave a canopy above

Nest and egg and mother.


But for fattening rain

We should have no flowers,

Never a bud or leaf again

But for soaking showers;


Never a mated bird

In the rocking tree-tops,

Never indeed a flock or herd

To graze upon the lea-crops. 20


Lambs so woolly white,

Sheep the sun-bright leas on,

They could have no grass to bite

But for rain in season.


We should find no moss

In the shadiest places,

Find no waving meadow grass

Pied with broad-eyed daisies:


But miles of barren sand,

With never a son or daughter, 30

Not a lily on the land,

Or lily on the water.

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