The Rain and the Wind
The Rain and the Wind
Original Text
William Ernest Henley, "Hawthorn and Lavender, XLIII" Poems (London: Macmillan and Co., 1920): 183. PR 4783 A36 1921 Robarts Library
1The rain and the wind, the wind and the rain --
2 They are with us like a disease:
3They worry the heart, they work the brain,
4As they shoulder and clutch at the shrieking pane,
5 And savage the helpless trees.
6What does it profit a man to know
7 These tattered and tumbling skies
8A million stately stars will show,
9And the ruining grace of the after-glow
10 And the rush of the wild sunrise?
11Ever the rain -- the rain and the wind!
12 Come, hunch with me over the fire,
13Dream of the dreams that leered and grinned,
14Ere the blood of the Year got chilled and thinned,
15 And the death came on desire!
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1996-2000.
Rhyme