February Rain / Charles Dazey

February Rain

O lonely day! No sounds are heard
    Save winds and floods that downward pour,
And timid fluting of a bird,
    That pipes one low note o'er and o'er.

Before the blast the bare trees lean,
    The ragged clouds sail low and gray,
And all the wild and wintry scene
    Is but one blur of driving spray.

O day most meet for memories,
    For musing by a vacant hearth
On that which was and that which is,
    And those who walk no more on earth!

And yet this dark and dreary day
    Some brighter lesson still can bring,
For it is herald of the May,
    A faint foretoken of the spring.

Beneath the ceaseless-beating rain
    Earth's snowy shroud fast disappears,
As sorrow pressing on the brain,
    Fades in a flood of happy tears.

And thus in darkness oft is wrought,
    Through lonely days of tears and grief,
The gradual change by which is brought
    To shadowed lives some sweet relief.

~~
Charles Dazey (1855-1938)

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

Charles Dazey biography

Bailiwick Studios, Rain Puddles, 2016. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons