427. Summer And Winter by Percy Bysshe Shelley
b'PB Shelley read by Classic Poetry Aloud: Giving voice to the poetry of the past.\\nwww.classicpoetryaloud.com\\n\\n--------------------------------------------\\n\\nSummer And Winter\\nby Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 \\u2013 1822)\\n\\nIt was a bright and cheerful afternoon,\\nTowards the end of the sunny month of June,\\nWhen the north wind congregates in crowds\\nThe floating mountains of the silver clouds\\nFrom the horizon--and the stainless sky\\nOpens beyond them like eternity.\\nAll things rejoiced beneath the sun; the weeds,\\nThe river, and the cornfields, and the reeds;\\nThe willow leaves that glanced in the light breeze,\\nAnd the firm foliage of the larger trees.\\n\\nIt was a winter such as when birds die\\nIn the deep forests; and the fishes lie\\nStiffened in the translucent ice, which makes\\nEven the mud and slime of the warm lakes\\nA wrinkled clod as hard as brick; and when,\\nAmong their children, comfortable men\\nGather about great fires, and yet feel cold:\\nAlas, then, for the homeless beggar old!\\n\\n\\nFirst aired: 28 December 2007\\n\\nFor hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index.\\n\\nReading \\xa9 Classic Poetry Aloud 2009'