The year's at the spring/Abbott, H. H

For works with similar titles, see Black and White.

Black and White

I MET a man along the road
To Withernsea;
Was ever anything so dark, so pale
As he?
His hat, his clothes, his tie, his boots
Were black as black
Could be,
And midst of all was a cold white face,
And eyes that looked wearily.

The road was bleak and straight and flat
To Withernsea,
Gaunt poles with shrilling wires their weird
Did dree;
On the sky stood out, on the swollen sky
The black blood veins
Of tree
After tree, as they beat from the face
Of the wind which they could not flee.

And in the fields along the road

To Withernsea,

Swart crows sat huddled on the ground
Disconsolately,
While overhead the seamews wheeled, and skirled
In glee;
But the black cows stood, and cropped where they stood,
And never heeded thee,
O dark pale man, with the weary eyes,
On the road to Withernsea.

H. H. ABBOTT