Winter

Winter is a dreary season,
Heavy waters in confusion
  Beat the wide world’s strand.
Birds of every place are mournful
But the hot and savage ravens,
  At rough winter’s shriek.
Crude and black and dank and smoky;
Dogs about their bones are snarling,
On the fire the cauldron bubbles
  All the long dark day.


Source: O'Connor, Frank (tr); Kings, Lords, & Commons: An Anthology
from the Irish; 1962; London; Macmillan & Co; p.26