As I Walked Out One Morning
Morna Road (7), London, SE5
As I walked out one morning,
Walking down Morna Road,
The roofs upon parked cars,
Were ice-bergs with frosty nodes.
And down behind some houses,
I found a grassy patch;
To my surprise, a daisy
With delicate frost attached.
“My name is Hoarfrost,
Forever I will grow,
Whilst the ground is so cold,
And the air is so moist,
Whilst the night sky is cloudless,
And the wind is asleep,
From gas to solid,
Directly I leap.
Although it’s a common mistake to make
I didn’t form from dew,
Instead I skipped that liquid phase:
Straight from water vapour I grew.”
But the earth is rotating,
The sun will soon reach you.
‘O let not Time deceive you,’
Warmth will fast destroy you.
It was late, late in the morning,
The sun was shining brightly,
The sky was blue and beautiful,
And the frost had gone politely.
Poem inspired by, and a tribute to: As I Walked Out One Evening by W.H.Auden
Lovely