Friday Poetry: William Barnes

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has had a good week so far. Mine has been a very busy week with work and trying to get ready for Christmas. Getting ready for Christmas is never easy for myself and my husband because we are both musicians and this is our busiest time of year.

My chosen poem this week is by William Barnes (1801-1886). Barnes was born to a farming family in Dorset. He worked as a solicitor’s clerk before becoming a schoolmaster and then he was ordained. Over his life he wrote approximately 800 poems.

A Winter Night

It was a chilly winter's night;
And frost was glitt'ring on the ground,
And from the gloomy plain around
Came no sound,
But where, within the wood-girt tow'r,
The churchbell slowly struck the hour;

As if that all of human birth
Had risen to the final day,
And soaring from the wornout earth
Were called in hurry and dismay,
Far away;
And I alone of all mankind
Were left in loneliness behind.

William Barnes