When winter tightens in its hold
The trees cast off their leaves of gold
Where few in idle reverie go
The Dandy Line’s adrift with snow.
Beneath the star-illumined sky
Who’ll hear the rabbit’s stricken cry?
In the distance, a train is heard
The frost entraps a spider’s web
The birds grow muted in their song
Each moment seems a lifetime long…
The swift begin their homeward flight
A sickle-moon commands the night.
Days grow long and languorous now
Pink campion in the hedgerows flower.
Unfolding, slowly, as a dream
The sky has never lovelier been…
Intricate trace and pattern of the leaves
Whose textures would the artist please.
William’s Ghyll -is dappled with the sun
Young lovers with their dreams return.