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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

The Rain And The Wind

William Ernest Henley

The rain and the wind, the wind and the rain—
    They are with us like a disease:
They worry the heart, they work the brain,
As they shoulder and clutch at the shrieking pane,
    And savage the helpless trees.

What does it profit a man to know
    These tattered and tumbling skies
A million stately stars will show,
And the ruining grace of the after-glow
    And the rush of the wild sunrise?

Ever the rain—the rain and the wind!
    Come, hunch with me over the fire,
Dream of the dreams that leered abd grinned,
Ere the blood of the Year got chilled and thinned,
    And the death came on desire!
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Poems | Macmillan and Co., 1920
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