I Woke in the Night and Heard the Wind

I woke in the night and heard the wind, and it blowing half a / gale.

"Blizzard, by gum! " I said to myself out loud, "What an / elegant

Hissing and howling, what a roar! " And I rose, half-rose, in bed, and

Listened to the wind, smelling new snow- No smell like that-a smell neither sour nor sweet- No fragrance, none at all, nothing to compete with, nothing to / interfere

With the odourless clear passage of the smell of new snow

Through the nostrils. "Cold," I said; And clawed up the extra blanket from the foot of the bed.

Lying there, coiled and cuddled within my own warmth, / Ephemeral but far from frail, / I listened to the winding-up from a sound almost not heard, to the yelling hurling

Thump against the house of an all-but-official gale

And thought, "Bad night for a sail

Except far out at sea."

And somewhere something heavy bumped and rolled

And bumped, like a barrel of molasses loose in the hold.