Thursday, October 26, 2006

With wind and the weather beating round me
Up to the hill and the moorland I go.
Who will come with me?
Who will climb with me?
Wade through the brook
And tramp through the snow?
Not in the petty circle of cities
Cramped by your doors and your walls I dwell;
Over me God is blue in the welkin,
Against me the wind and the storm rebel.
I sport with solitude here in my regions,
Of misadventure have made me a friend.
Who would live largely?
Who would live freely?
Here to the wind-swept uplands ascend.
I am the Angel of tempest and mountain,
I am the Spirit of freedom and pride.
Stark must he be and a kinsman to danger
Who shares my kingdom and walks at my side.
The meaning of the Welkin -The sky; heaven; the firmament.
We don’t use this much nowadays—dictionaries usually tag it as archaic or literary—except in the set phrase make the welkin ring, meaning to make a very loud sound. What supposedly rings in this situation is the vault of heaven, the bowl of the sky
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2 comments:

Annelisa said...

Love it! It so reminds me of my many walks on the 'South Downs' (the chalk hills in the South East of UK) where you can feel close to the largeness of the universe.

You are a very talented writer - you evoke memories and imagination with your words!

Annelisa said...

Oh yes, and I thought you were making up the word 'Welkin' (as Mother of Invention was talking about today :-))as I'd never heard it before- turns out to be a real word... learning something new every day!