March’s poem is “The North Wind Doth Blow” aka “The Robin” … not least because of the weather that we are having at the moment !
The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will poor robin do then?
Poor thing.
He’ll sit in a barn,
And keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing,
Poor thing.
The North wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the dormouse do then?
Poor thing.
She’ll curl in a ball,
In her nest oh-so small,
And wait for the coming of spring,
Poor thing.
The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the daisies do then?
Poor things.
They’ll stay in the grass,
‘Til winter has passed,
And wait for the coming of spring,
Poor things.
The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the swallows do then?
Poor things.
Oh say, don’t you know?
They were gone long ago,
To a country much warmer than this,
Poor things.
This is actually, originally, a nursery rhyme and is referred to as either ‘The North Wind Doth Blow’ or ‘The Robin’. It is British in origin and believed to have originated in the 16th century. Most people know the first verse, but not everybody knows that there were three others !
The featured image is “Figures crossing a heath with a brisk wind blowing” by Jan van Goyen (1596 – 1656) who was a Dutch landscape painter. He was extremely prolific; approximately twelve hundred paintings and more than one thousand drawings by him are known.