Wind blow cold
In the wood faraway under me.
Pale rain over the dwindling harbour
And over the sea wet church the size of a snail
With its horns through mist and the castle
Brown as owls
But all the gardens
Of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales
Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud.
There could I marvel
My birthday
Away but the weather turned around.
It turned away from the blithe country
And down the other air and the blue altered sky
Streamed again a wonder of summer
With apples
The description ‘blithe’ is unexpected. This is more a reflection of the poet’s mood than the countryside, a sense of birthday exhilaration. Again the countryside is given human attributes in the adjective ‘blithe, meaning 'unconcerned’ or ‘unworried’.
Poem in October