January Dusk / John Drinkwater

January Dusk

Austere and clad in sombre robes of grey,
     With hands upfolded and with silent wings,
In unimpassioned mystery the day
     Passes; a lonely thrush its requiem sings.

The dust of night is tangled in the boughs
     Of leafless lime and lilac, and the pine
Grows blacker, and the star upon the brows
     Of sleep is set in heaven for a sign.

Earth's little weary peoples fall on peace
     And dream of breaking buds and blossoming,
Of primrose airs, of days of large increase.
     And all the coloured retinue of spring.

~~
John Drinkwater (1882-1937)
from Poems of Men and Hours, 1911

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

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