English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 656. Ode to the North-east Wind |
| | | Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) |
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| WELCOME, wild North-easter! | |
| Shame it is to see | |
| Odes to every zephyr; | |
| Ne’er a verse to thee. | |
| Welcome, black North-easter! | 5 |
| O’er the German foam; | |
| O’er the Danish moorlands, | |
| From thy frozen home. | |
| Tired we are of summer, | |
| Tired of gaudy glare, | 10 |
| Showers soft and steaming, | |
| Hot and breathless air. | |
| Tired of listless dreaming, | |
| Through the lazy day: | |
| Jovial wind of winter | 15 |
| Turn us out to play! | |
| Sweep the golden reed-beds; | |
| Crisp the lazy dyke; | |
| Hunger into madness | |
| Every plunging pike. | 20 |
| Fill the lake with wild-fowl; | |
| Fill the marsh with snipe; | |
| While on dreary moorlands | |
| Lonely curlew pipe. | |
| Through the black fir-forest | 25 |
| Thunder harsh and dry, | |
| Shattering down the snow-flakes | |
| Off the curdled sky. | |
| Hark! The brave North-easter! | |
| Breast-high lies the scent, | 30 |
| On by holt and headland, | |
| Over heath and bent. | |
| Chime, ye dappled darlings, | |
| Through the sleet and snow. | |
| Who can over-ride you? | 35 |
| Let the horses go! | |
| Chime, ye dappled darlings, | |
| Down the roaring blast | |
| You shall see a fox die | |
| Ere an hour be past. | 40 |
| Go! and rest to-morrow, | |
| Hunting in your dreams, | |
| While our skates are ringing | |
| O’er the frozen streams. | |
| Let the luscious South-wind | 45 |
| Breathe in lovers’ sighs, | |
| While the lazy gallants | |
| Bask in ladies’ eyes. | |
| What does he but soften | |
| Heart alike and pen? | 50 |
| ’Tis the hard grey weather | |
| Breeds hard English men. | |
| What’s the soft South-wester? | |
| ’Tis the ladies’ breeze, | |
| Bringing home their true-loves | 55 |
| Out of all the seas: | |
| But the black North-easter, | |
| Through the snowstorm hurled, | |
| Drives our English hearts of oak | |
| Seaward round the world. | 60 |
| Come, as came our fathers, | |
| Heralded by thee, | |
| Conquering from the eastward, | |
| Lords by land and sea. | |
| Come; and strong within us | 65 |
| Stir the Vikings’ blood; | |
| Bracing brain and sinew; | |
| Blow, thou wind of God! | |
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