Scottish Poetry Selection
- In January

Walter Wingate paints us a wonderful picture of a January dawn - and a new beginning - with a muted but striking palette.


            In January

Dull tenement and muddy street
   And sober working day:
How came a dawn so rarely sweet
   Above a world so grey?

No lurid threat of tempest there,
   No far flung flaunt of red,
Compelled the weatherwise to stare
   And shake a dubious head.

Dim misty purples, veined with gold,
   Silver and pallid blue,
With grey and pearl - when all was told,
   A meagre range of hue!

But oh! The poetry of scheme,
   The grace of each detail:
Ah! Vain is many an artist's dream
   But this one did not fail.

To miss his message could I choose?
   Before I was aware
I felt the spirit of dawn transfuse
   My outlook everywhere.

Return to the Index of Walter Wingate Poems or the General Index of Scottish Poetry




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