The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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1 comment:
Hi Rob,
I like how the closed, repetitive rhyme structure in the first two stanzas (in both stanzas, the first two lines end in 'dreary' and 'weary' and the final line again ends in 'dreary') gives way in the third to a displacement of 'dreary' and 'weary' in the first two lines (replaced by 'repining' and 'shining'). This releases the claustrophobic effect of the first two stanzas. But Longfellow doesn't release us completely from the reality of the now occasional rain - still ending the poem with the word 'dreary', put, however, into proper context.
Nice.
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