The Warm and the Cold

Freezing dusk is closing Like a slow trap of steel On trees and roads and hills and all That can no longer feel. But the carp is in its depth Like a planet in its heaven. And the badger in its bedding Like a loaf in the oven. And the butterfly in its mummy Like a viol in its case. And the owl in its feathers Like a doll in its lace. Freezing dusk has tightened Like a nut screwed tight On the starry aeroplane Of the soaring night. But the trout is in its hole Like a chuckle in a sleeper. The hare strays down the highway Like a root going deeper. The snail is dry in the outhouse Like a seed in a sunflower. The owl is pale on the gatepost Like a clock on its tower. Moonlight freezes the shaggy world Like a mammoth of ice - The past and the future Are the jaws of a steel vice. But the cod is in the tide-rip Like a key in a purse. The deer are on the bare-blown hill Like smiles on a nurse. The flies are behind the plaster Like the lost score of a jig. Sparrows are in the ivy-clump Like money in a pig. Such a frost The flimsy moon Has lost her wits. A star falls. The sweating farmers Turn in their sleep Like oxen on spits.

rhymed verse

The Warm and the Cold - meaning Summary

Life Sheltered Within Frost

The poem sets a freezing landscape against the hidden warmth, shelter, and continued life of animals. Its comparisons make creatures seem securely placed within their environments, even as dusk, moonlight, and frost make the outer world feel trapped and hostile. The final image shifts to sleeping farmers, whose sweating bodies suggest that human life, too, remains physical and vulnerable beneath the cold night.

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