As the winds use
A crack in a wall
Or a drain,
Their joy or their pain
To whistle through -
Choose me,
You English words?
I know you:
You are light as dreams,
Tough as oak,
Precious as gold,
As poppies and corn,
Or an old cloak:
Sweet as our birds
To the ear,
As the burnet rose
Thomas uses humour here. The “old cloak” is unexpected and the reader can decide its significance; probably comfort and familiarity. Or the poet may just be teasing the reader. 
 The colon creates a pause, a  caesura  to slow down the pace and maybe the reader might smile. This poem would work well read aloud in performance.
Words