Two poems for a rainy day

I had planned to light the fire and watch a Jane Austen dvd ( I still want to say 'video') but the urchins, on leaving for their Father's have turned the telly over to its PlayStation mode, which means I can't make the darn thing work!
I can't settle to reading, so I have returned to one of my favourite past-times, following a thread of an idea through my books of poetry.
 A remembered phrase from Thomas Hardy

' The stirless depths of the yews
  Are vague with misty blues'

turned out to be from a poem about winter, not rain.

The line from W.B Yeats 'The Lake at Innsifree' feels right for this quiet afternoon-

' And peace comes dropping slow'

 Now, finally, I have found two poems that have suited my search today. I had a feeling that my favourite Edward Thomas had written a poem about rain that I'd liked and (at the risk of sounding very UN-poetical) it's like scratching an itch to have found it!

Before I copy these two, I wouldn't be honest if I didn't mention a poem that came immediately to my mind when thinking about this damp subject. It's called

'Night Rain after Summer Drought'

and contains such phrases as

' Shivering trees whisper, in lisping patters'
and
' I return to my cocoon of civilisation
where Natures Forces
are no longer law!'

Yes.... it is a much loved but truly dreadful poem I wrote when I was about sixteen....


But moving swiftly on

It Rains- Edward Thomas

It rains, and nothing stirs within the fence
Anywhere through the orchard's untrodden, dense
Forest of parsley. The great diamonds
Of rain on the grassblades there is none to break,
Or the fallen petals further down to shake.

And I am nearly as happy as possible
To search through the wilderness in vain though well,
To think of two walking, kissing there,
Drenched, yet forgetting the kisses of the rain:
Sad, to, to think that never, never again,

Unless alone, so happy shall I walk
In the rain. When I turn away, on its fine stalk
Twilight has fined to naught, the parsley flower
Figures, suspended still and ghostly white,
The past hovering as it revisits the light

Happiness A.A. Milne

 John Had
Great Big
Waterproof
Boots on;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Hat;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Mackintosh --
And that
(Said John)
Is
That.

I've spent a very happy hour.....