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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