But the Year is waning; in the long chilly Dark it sits;

No more, though by mere spasms, it breaks out into merry fits.

Sulky and dull it mumbles its tempers in fog and sleet;

Its joints are stiff with age; it totters on frost-bitten feet.

’Tis Winter, with a train pinched like itself, and short of breath,

That shivers, and, as it moves, rattles its remains of teeth.

GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.