#WingedWordsWindsday: 2023/02/08 -- A Cornucopia of February Poems

 WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled & Edited by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 2, No. 15: February 8, 2023

 

 

The Lengthening Days of February

 

Some Reflections on February

                February, the shortest month of the year, brings a cornucopia of contradictions for our consideration. Winter appears to be on the wane, and the approaching spring is heralded by increasing daylight and warmer temperatures. Snowstorms and sunshine alternate with damp and dreary days, which sometimes bring the icy specter of the pogonip (freezing fog) to our doorsteps. Nonetheless, our hearts are warmed by Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras, betokening more celebrations yet to come in the springtime. And so, presented here for your perusal are some poems that treat of the variegated vestures of February – from ancient times to the present day.

 

Orphic Hymn #79: “To the North Wind”

Translated by Thomas Taylor (1758-1835)

 

Boreas, whose wintry blasts, terrific, tear

The bosom of the deep surrounding air;

Cold icy power, approach, and favoring blow,

And Thrace a while desert exposed to snow:

The misty station of the air dissolve,

With pregnant clouds, whose frames in showers resolve:

Serenely temper all within the sky,

And wipe from moisture, Aether's beauteous eye.

 

“Spellbound”

By Emily Brontë (1818-1848)

 

The night is darkening round me,

The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go.

 

The giant trees are bending

Their bare boughs weighed with snow.

And the storm is fast descending,

And yet I cannot go.

 

Clouds beyond clouds above me,

Wastes beyond wastes below;

But nothing drear can move me;

I will not, cannot go.

 

“In February”

By George MacDonald (1824-1905)

 

Now in the dark of February rains,

Poor lovers of the sunshine, spring is born,

The earthy fields are full of hidden corn,

And March's violets bud along the lanes;

Therefore with joy believe in what remains.

And thou who dost not feel them, do not scorn

Our early songs for winter overworn,

And faith in God's handwriting on the plains.

"Hope" writes he, "Love" in the first violet,

"Joy," even from Heaven, in songs and winds and trees;

And having caught the happy words in these

While Nature labors with the letters yet,

Spring cannot cheat us, though her hopes be broken,

Nor leave us, for we know what God hath spoken.

 

During the winter on Mars, a mix of water ice and dry ice can precipitate onto the ground as snow. This Martian snowfall was observed on Utopia Planitia (the Utopian Plain) by the Viking 2 lander in the late 1970s. (Photo Credit: NASA – Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

“A Calendar of Sonnets: February”

By Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

 

Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white;

And reigns the winter's pregnant silence still;

No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill,

And willow stems grow daily red and bright.

These are days when ancients held a rite

Of expiation for the old year's ill,

And prayer to purify the new year's will:

Fit days, ere yet the spring rains blur the sight,

Ere yet the bounding blood grows hot with haste,

And dreaming thoughts grow heavy with a greed

The ardent summer's joy to have and taste;

Fit days, to give to last year's losses heed,

To recon clear the new life's sterner need;

Fit days, for Feast of Expiation placed!

 

“Winter-Time”

By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

 

Late lies the wintry Sun a-bed,

A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;

Blinks but an hour or two; and then,

A blood-red orange, sets again.

 

Before the stars have left the skies,

At morning in the dark I rise;

And shivering in my nakedness,

By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

 

Close by the jolly fire I sit

To warm my frozen bones a bit;

Or with a reindeer-sled, explore

The colder countries round the door.

 

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap

Me in my comforter and cap;

The cold wind burns my face, and blows

Its frosty pepper up my nose.

 

Black are my steps on silver sod;

Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;

And tree and house, and hill and lake,

Are frosted like a wedding cake.

 

“Before the Snow”

By Bliss Carman (1861-1929)

 

Now soon, ah, very soon, I know

The trumpets of the north will blow,

And the great winds will come to bring

The pale, wild riders of the snow.

 

Darkening the Sun with level flight,

At arrowy speed, they will alight,

Unnumbered as the desert sands,

To bivouac on the edge of night.

 

Then I, within their somber ring,

Shall hear a voice that seems to sing,

Deep, deep within my tranquil heart,

The valiant prophecy of spring.

 

“The First Red-Bird”

By Evaleen Stein (1863-1923)

 

I heard a song at daybreak,

So honey-sweet and clear,

The essence of all joyous things

Seemed mingling in its cheer.

 

The frosty world about me

I searched with eager gaze,

But all was slumber-bound and wrapped

In violet-tinted haze.

 

Then suddenly a sunbeam

Shot slanting o'er the hill,

And once again from out the sky

I heard that honied trill.

 

And there upon a poplar,

Poised at its topmost height,

I saw a little singer clad

In scarlet plumage bright.

 

The poplar branches quivered,

By dawn winds lightly blown,

And like a breeze-swept poppy-flower

The red-bird rocked and shone.

 

The blue sky, and his feathers

Flashed o'er by golden light,

Oh, all my heart with rapture thrilled,

It was so sweet a sight!

 

“Arcturus”

By Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

 Arcturus brings the spring back

As surely now as when

He rose on eastern islands

For Grecian girls and men;

The twilight is as clear a blue,

The star as shaken and as bright,

And the same thought he gave to them

He gives to me tonight.

 

Arcturus (pictured above) is a bright orange giant star, located 37 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Boötes (the Herdsman). Arcturus was the subject of the classic science fiction novel A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay, published in 1920, which influenced the fantasy novels of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. (Photo Credit: NASA – Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)