April 18, 2005

My favorite poem of four lines

I almost said "of four lines or less", but then I remembered that there's haiku. This one was written five hundred years ago by that most prolific of authors, Anonymous.

Western wind, when wilt thou blow?
The small rain down can rain.
Christ, that my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again.

"The small rain down can rain." Yes. Yes it can. I don't think any poet has better captured, in a single image, how the daily trials of life can beset us.

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