Christina Rossetti - Poem (Winter Rain) lyrics

Every valley drinks, Every dell and hollow: Where the kind rain sinks and sinks, Green of Spring will follow. Yet a lapse of weeks Buds will burst their edges, Strip their wool-coats, glue-coats, streaks, In the woods and hedges; Weave a bower of love For birds to meet each other, Weave a canopy above Nest and egg and mother. But for fattening rain We should have no flowers, Never a bud or leaf again But for soaking showers; Never a mated bird In the rocking tree-tops, Never indeed a flock or herd To graze upon the lea-crops. Lambs so woolly white, Sheep the sun-bright leas on, They could have no gra** to bite But for rain in season. We should find no moss In the shadiest places, Find no waving meadow-gra** Pied with broad-eyed daisies; But miles of barren sand, With never a son or daughter, Not a lily on the land, Or lily on the water.