By the road to the contagious hospital <br />under the surge of the blue <br />mottled clouds driven from the <br />northeast -- a cold wind. Beyond, the <br />waste of broad, muddy fields <br />brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen <br /> <br />patches of standing water <br />the scattering of tall trees <br /> <br />All along the road the reddish <br />purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy <br />stuff of bushes and small trees <br />with dead, brown leaves under them <br />leafless vines -- <br /> <br />Lifeless in appearance, sluggish <br />dazed spring approaches -- <br /> <br />They enter the new world naked, <br />cold, uncertain of all <br />save that they enter. All about them <br />the cold, familiar wind -- <br /> <br />Now the grass, tomorrow <br />the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf <br /> <br />One by one objects are defined -- <br />It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf <br /> <br />But now the stark dignity of <br />entrance -- Still, the profound change <br />has come upon them: rooted they <br />grip down and begin to awaken<br /><br />William Carlos Williams<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/spring-and-all/
