Poetry and Appleby Scenes 5

Anna Bunston de Bary:
SNOWDROP

Close to the sod
There can be seen
A thought of God
In white and green
Unmarried, unsoiled,
It cleft the clay;
Serene, unspoiled,
It views the day.

It is so holy
And yet so lowly,
Would you enjoy
Its grace and dower
And not destroy
The living flower?
Then you must, please,
Fall on your knees.

C P Aiken:
extract from
IMPROVISATIONS: LIGHT AND SNOW

It is night time, and cold, and snow is falling,
And no wind grieves the walls.
In the small world of light around the arc-lamp
A swarm of snowflakes falls and falls.
The street grows silent. The last stranger passes.
The sound of his feet, in the snow, is indistinct.

What forgotten sadness is it, on a night like this,
Takes possession of my heart?
Why do I think of a camellia tree in a southern garden,
With pink blossoms among dark leaves,
Standing, surprised, in the snow?
Why do I think of spring?

The snowflakes, helplessly veering,,
Fall silently past my window;
They come from darkness and enter darkness.
What is it in my heart is surprised and bewildered
Like that camellia tree,
Beautiful still in its glittering anguish?
And spring so far away!

Disappearing Dialects

AAME: Condensation upon a window. ‘I hed to wipe the aame off the winders afore I could see out’!
ABLESS: Helpless, able-less. Sometimes used to describe someone who is old and loosing his faculties!