GO, WINTER!

By James Whitcomb Riley

Go, Winter! Go thy ways! We want again

The twitter of the bluebird and the wren;

Leaves ever greener growing, and the shine

Of Summer's sun — not thine.—

Thy sun, which mocks our need of warmth and love

And all the heartening fervencies thereof,

It scarce hath heat enow to warm our thin

Pathetic yearnings in.

So get thee from us! We are cold, God wot,

Even as thou art.— We remember not

How blithe we hailed thy coming.— That was O

Too long — too long ago!

Get from us utterly! Ho! Summer then

Shall spread her grasses where thy snows have been,

And thy last icy footprint melt and mold

In her first marigold.