Historical & Legendary Ballads & Songs By Walter Thornbury. Illustrated by J. Whistler, F. Walker, John Tenniel, J. D. Watson, W. Small, F. Sandys, G. J. Pinwell, T. Morten, M. J. Lawless, and many others |
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The Year's Twelve Children.
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 | Historical & Legendary Ballads & Songs |  |
The Year's Twelve Children.
January, worn and grey,Like an old pilgrim by the way,
Watches the snow, and shivering sighs,
As the wild curlew round him flies;
Or huddled underneath a thorn,
Sits praying for the lingering morn.
February, bluff and bold,
O'er furrows striding, scorns the cold;
And with his horses two abreast,
Makes the keen plough do his behest.
Rough March comes blustering down the road,
In his wroth hand the oxen's goad;
Or, with a rough and angry haste,
Scatters the seed o'er the dark waste.
April, a child, half tears, half smiles,
Trips full of little playful wiles;
And laughing 'neath her rainbow hood,
Seeks the wild violets in the wood.
May, the bright maiden, singing goes
To where the snowy hawthorn blows,
Watching the lambs leap in the dells,
Hearing the simple village bells.
June, with the mower's scarlet face,
Moves o'er the clover-field apace,
And fast his crescent scythe sweeps on
O'er spots from whence the lark has flown.
July—the farmer, happy fellow,
Laughs to see the corn grow yellow;
The heavy grain he tosses up
From his right hand as from a cup.
August—the reaper cleaves his way
Through golden waves at break of day;
Or on his waggon, piled with corn,
At sunset, home is proudly borne.
September, with his braying hound,
Leaps fence and pale at every bound;
And casts unto the wind in scorn
All cares and dangers from his horn.
October comes, a woodman old,
Fenced with tough leather from the cold;
Round swings his sturdy axe, and lo!
A fir-branch falls at every blow.
November cowers before the flame,
Bleared crone, forgetting her own name!
Watches the blue smoke curling rise,
And broods upon old memories.
December fat and rosy strides,
His old heart warm, well clothed his sides,
With kindly word for young and old,
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Laughing a welcome, open flings
His doors, and as he does it, sings.
| Historical & Legendary Ballads & Songs | |