Apropos of the wet winter of 1872.

WRING out the clouds in that damp sky,

Which all this year so drear have made,

If, for the weather's clerk, her trade

A weather-washerwoman ply.

Wring out the old, wring in the new,

Wring, weather-washerwoman, so,

That wet shod if the Old Year must go

The New may damps and dumps eschew.

Wring out the wet that stands in clay,