THE PRESENT COLD WEATHER. Nov 24 1866. Poem
THE PRESENT COLD WEATHER. (1866, November 24). Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA : 1861 – 1954), p. 4. Retrieved November 10, 2019, fromhttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/77133131/7599715#
It was an aged-crone,
That with a great bemoan,
And tear drops standing in her bleary eyes,
At the fire side sat shivering,
Her trembling limbs all quivering,
While from her bosom depths there rose sad sighs.
Ah, me! it was a sight,
To startle with a fright,
A man whose nerves are anything but strong;
I therefore cried, ” Alas!
This is a pretty pass;
For this here world this woman won’t be long”
Startled at the sound,
She turned her head around
Oh! what a ghastly face was then disclosed.
Her eyes that were so red,
Were rolling in her head,
And many a crow’s foot under them reposed.
Quickly she spoke to me
Which almost made me flee;
So horribly she grinned from ear to ear,
And said in grating tones,
That shook her poor old bones,
” I never see such, weather at this time of the year.”
All my teeth are aching,
With chattering and quaking,
While all down my backbone the cold wind howls.
The very cows do get
Out of the cold and wet;
The pigs are almost frozen, and the fowls.
I really do believe,
And clearly can perceive,
Out of one summer this is quite a diddle.”
Thus she would have gone on,
For she had a long tongue,
But I departing stopp’d it in the middle.
MARY M.
Robe, November 16.