Winter tarrys long in seaside towns,
It glowers darkly on the vacant streets
He gives the dowdy façades such a frown
and coldly dampens all the treading feet.
Winter hangs too long o\'er sea and sand;
It scowls along and wears a sullen face;
It plucks at scarves and bites at ungloved hands
and in the gutter leaves a muddied trace
It sandblasts all the faded summer paint,
of buildings in the street and \'bout the square.
It stings the eyes and nips the shivered hands
of all the land lived people passing there.
The water\'d winter sunlight falls so pale,
the shadows that it cast are barely shown.
Days of the season seem so thin and frail
And summer\'s coloured gardens lie drab brown.
I find that winter mornings come too soon
to drag me grumpy from my slumber\'d lay,
breaking into reverie of summer afternoons
and forcing life to battle with the day.
But sometimes winter grins a chilly smile
and coolly casts a mantle pure and white
which deftly muffles footsteps in the silence of the eve
and adds that crunch and squeaking to the footfalls of the night
But, then as winter ages, so it slacks it\'s icy grasp,
small thrusting beads of colour start to show.
and prompted by a gentle plea from lovers as they pass
sees spring arrive and knows it\'s time to go.