{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/morris/ep3/ep308.htm","path":"neu/morris/ep3/ep308.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/morris/ep3/ep308.htm","text":"The Earthly Paradise, (December-February), by William Morris, [1870]\nNOON\u2014and the north-west sweeps the empty road,\n The rain-washed fields from hedge to hedge are bare;\n Beneath the leafless elms some hind's abode\n Looks small and void, and no smoke meets the air\n From its poor hearth: one lonely rook doth dare\n The gale, and beats above the unseen corn,\n Then turns, and whirling down the wind is borne.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Shall it not hap that on some dawn of May\n Thou shalt awake, and, thinking of days dead,\n See nothing clear but this same dreary day,\n Of all the days that have passed o\u2019er thine head?\n Shalt thou not wonder, looking from thy bed,\n Through green leaves on the windless east a-fire,\n That this day too thine heart doth still desire?\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Shalt thou not wonder that it liveth yet,\n The useless hope, the useless craving pain,\n That made thy face, that lonely noontide, wet\n With more than beating of the chilly rain?\n Shalt thou not hope for joy new born again,\n Since no grief ever born can ever die\n Through changeless change of seasons passing by? p. 232\nTHE change has come at last, and from the west\n Drives on the wind, and gives the clouds no rest,\n And ruffles up the water thin that lies\n Over the surface of the thawing ice;\n Sunrise and sunset with no glorious show\n Are seen, as late they were across the snow;\n The wet-lipped west wind chilleth to the bone\n More than the light and flickering east hath done.\n Full soberly the earth's fresh hope begins,\n Nor stays to think of what each new day wins:\n And still it seems to bid us turn away\n From this chill thaw to dream of blossomed May:\n E\u2019en as some hapless lover's dull shame sinks\n Away sometimes in day-dreams, and he thinks\n No more of yesterday's disgrace and foil,\n No more he thinks of all the sickening toil\n Of piling straw on straw to reach the sky;\n But rather now a pitying face draws nigh,\n Mid tears and prayers for pardon; and a tale\n To make love tenderer now is all the bale\n Love brought him erst.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But on this chill dank tide\n Still are the old men by the fireside,\n And all things cheerful round the day just done\n Shut out the memory of the cloud-drowned sun, p. 233\n And dripping bough and blotched and snow-soaked earth;\n And little as the tide seemed made for mirth,\n Scarcely they lacked it less than months agone,\n When on their wrinkles bright the great sun shone;\n Rather, perchance, less pensive now they were,\n And meeter for that cause old tales to hear\n Of stirring deeds long dead:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So, as it fell,\n Preluding nought, an elder \u2019gan to tell\n The story promised in mid-winter days\n Of all that latter end of bliss and praise\n That erst befell Bellerophon the bright,\n Ere all except his name sank into night.","title":"The Earthly Paradise (December-February): February: Introduction","type":"page"}