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At Nine Of The Night

At nine of the night I opened my door
That stands midway between moor and moor,
And all around me, silver-bright,
I saw that the world had turned to white.

Thick was the snow on field and hedge
And vanished was the river-sedge,
Where winter skilfully had wound
A shining scarf without a sound.

And as I stood and gazed my fill
A stable-boy came down the hill.
With every step I saw him take
Flew at his heel a puff of flake.

His brow was whiter than the hoar,
A beard of freshest snow he wore,
And round about him, snowflake starred,
A red horse-blanket from the yard.

In a red cloak I saw him go,
His back was bent, his step was slow,
And as he laboured through the cold
He seemed a hundred winters old.

I stood and watched the snowy head,
The whiskers white, the cloak of red.
'A Merry Christmas!' I heard him cry.
'The same to you, old friend,' said I.

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Comments


  • November 9
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    At nine of the night -by Charles Causley

    From guest Gaynor Townley (contact)
    Should second line,second verse be'rivers edge' not river-sedge?


    • I-Like-Rhymes Moderators member
      November 9
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      For Guest Gaynor Townley and others

      No.
      It seems to me that the poet really meant river-sedge judging by the context.
      The snow hid the hedge that stuck up from the ground and the sedge that stuck up from the river and it's margins.
      Sedge is a rushlike plant that grows in wet places.
      It is possible to omit an apostrophe when typing in a poem here but the presence of a hyphen instead is, for me, a giveaway of the poet's real words.
      Jim


  • October 10
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    From guest Genesis (contact)
    I love this poem, One of my favourite old poems of all time, I cannot really express how much I love this winter classic. It's magic with a twist.

  • Smilingspider
    August 9, 2003
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    A good descriptive piece, he's right about the moors either side of us, captured the area very well. Good piece.