March 1st, 2018

Spring's an expansive time; yet I don't trust

March with its peck of dust.

From Winter: My Secret, Christina Rossetti (1862)

I tell my secret? No indeed, not I:

Perhaps some day, who knows?

But not today; it froze, and blows, and snows,

And you're too curious: fie!

You want to hear it? well:

Only, my secret's mine, and I won't tell.

Or, after all, perhaps there's none:

Suppose there is no secret after all,

But only just my fun.

Today's a nipping day, a biting day;

In which one wants a shawl,

A veil, a cloak, and other wraps:

I cannot ope to every one who taps,

And let the draughts come whistling thro' my hall;

Come bounding and surrounding me,

Come buffeting, astounding me,

Nipping and clipping thro' my wraps and all.

I wear my mask for warmth: who ever shows

His nose to Russian snows

To be pecked at by every wind that blows?

You would not peck? I thank you for good will,

Believe, but leave that truth untested still.

Spring's an expansive time: yet I don't trust

March with its peck of dust...

Very little was visible under the snow this afternoon.

Heavy blizzards continue (snowstorms from Siberia).

"I wear my mask for warmth: who ever shows

His nose to Russian snows

To be pecked at by every wind that blows?"