The wind one morning sprang up from sleep,
Saying, “Now for a frolic! now for a leap!
Now for a madcap, galloping chase!
I'll make a commotion in every place!”
So it swept with a bustle right through a great town,
Creaking the signs, and scattering down
The shutters, and whisking, with merciless squalls,
Old women's bonnets and gingerbread stalls.
There never was heard a much lustier shout
As the apples and oranges tumbled about;
And urchins, that stand with their thievish eyes
Forever on watch, ran off each with a prize.
Then away to the fields it went blustering and humming,
And the cattle all wondered whatever was coming.
It plucked by their tails the grave matronly cows,
And tossed the colts' manes all about their brows,
Till offended at such a familiar salute,
They all turned their backs and stood silently mute.
So on it went, capering and playing its pranks;
Whistling with reeds on the broad river banks;
Puffing the birds, as they sat on a spray,
Or the travelers grave on the king's highway.
It was not too nice to bustle the bags
Of the beggar, and flutter his dirty rags.
'Twas so bold that it feared not to play its joke
With the doctor's wig, and the gentleman's cloak.
Through the forest it roared, and cried gayly, “Now,
You sturdy old oaks, I'll make you bow!”
And it made them bow without more ado,
Or it cracked their great branches through and through.
Then it rushed like a monster o'er cottage and farm,
Striking their inmates with sudden alarm;
And they ran out like bees in a midsummer swarm.
There were dames with kerchiefs tied over their caps,
To see if their poultry were free from mishaps.
The turkeys they gobbled, the geese screamed aloud,
And the hens crept to roost in a terrified crowd;
There was rearing of ladders, and logs laying on,
Where the thatch from the roof threatened soon to be gone.
But the wind had passed on, and had met in a lane
With a schoolboy, who panted and struggled in vain,
For it tossed him, and twirled him, then passed, and he stood
With his hat in a pool and his shoe in the mud.
The Wind In A Frolic
William Howitt
(5)
Poem topics: away, never, river, sleep, women, forever, monster, joke, king, bold, place, play, town, dirty, morning, roof, stand, watch, salute, chase, Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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Write your comment about The Wind In A Frolic poem by William Howitt
Anthea Jackson : This was a poem I used to recite at school.
Grace Doughty: One of my favourite poems from high school in the late nineteen fifties! in my memory I recalled up to the line:":old women's bonnets and ginger bred stalls" with a few words missing. So I decided to look the poem up, and, behold there is more! I do enjoy recalling it ,especially during the hurricane season here in the Carribbean.
Mary Regisson: I read that poem 56 years ago at school in the carribean.
Mary G Regisson: I read that poem at School in the Carribean and loved it so much happy i have it on my computer. that was 56 years ago.
Reshmi kujur: I love nature and I love reading this poem regularly
Reshmi: I love nature and I love reading this poem regularly
E serrette : This was one of the poems that my dad would recite regularly, he died at 97, it’s a great poem, puts you smack in the middle of the commotion
Victoria Sanchez: This is a really cute and really easy to understand when reading it
Christian Galvan: it was intertaning and calming
Dale Fink: My dad taught all of us the opening 4 lines in the 1950s. I never knew there was more to this poem!
richard ledwidge: s 11 at the time and I can still remember the bit I learned. I was amazed to find it all there on my computer today
Margaret : The date for that poem seems wrong. I learnt it at school in the 1950s!!!
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