Every valley drinks, <br />Every dell and hollow; <br />Where the kind rain sinks and sinks, <br />Green of Spring will follow. <br /> <br /> <br />Yet a lapse of weeks <br />Buds will burst their edges, <br />Strip their wool-coats, glue-coats, streaks, <br />In the woods and hedges; <br /> <br /> <br />Weave a bower of love <br />For birds to meet each other, <br />Weave a canopy above <br />Nest and egg and mother. <br /> <br /> <br />But for fattening rain <br />We should have no flowers, <br />Never a bud or leaf again <br />But for soaking showers; <br /> <br /> <br />Never a mated bird <br />In the rocking tree-tops, <br />Never indeed a flock or herd <br />To graze upon the lea-crops. <br /> <br /> <br />Lambs so woolly white, <br />Sheep the sun-bright leas on, <br />They could have no grass to bite <br />But for rain in season. <br /> <br /> <br />We should find no moss <br />In the shadiest places, <br />Find no waving meadow grass <br />Pied with broad-eyed daisies: <br /> <br /> <br />But miles of barren sand, <br />With never a son or daughter, <br />Not a lily on the land, <br />Or lily on the water.<br /><br />Christina Georgina Rossetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/winter-rain-5/
