Wednesday 18 July 2007

Another Poem for Today

Western Wind

Western wind, when will thou blow,
The small rain down can rain?
Christ, if my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again!


Anonymous poem from:-

The New Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse (1991)
edited by Emrys Jones, p44.
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous21 July 2007 at 18:10

    One of my favourite poems of all time - but I prefer the original spelling:

    Westron winde when will thou blow,
    The smalle raine downe can raine?
    Christ if my love were in my armes,
    And I in my bed againe.

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  2. Nicholas Murray22 July 2007 at 17:37

    I agree the original spelling gives it that extra flavour of authenticity but I only had a modernised text to hand when I suddenly recalled it. Glad you liked it. These short anonymous fragments (or whole poems) are often peculiarly affecting. I'll dig another one out shortly!

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