Winter Rain / Christina Rossetti

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,
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.

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,
Not a lily on the land,
     Or lily on the water.

~~
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
from Goblin Market,  and other poems, 1862

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide.]

Christina Rossetti biography