Wind and Mist + 

They met inside the gateway that gives the view, + 

A hollow land as vast as heaven. “It is + 

A pleasant day, sir.” “A very pleasant day.” + 

“And what a view here. If you like angled fields + 

Of grass and grain bounded by oak and thorn, + 

Here is a league. Had we with Germany + 

To play upon this board it could not be + 

More dear than April has made it with a smile. + 

The fields beyond that league close in together + 

And merge, even as our days into the past, + 

Into one wood that has a shining pane + 

Of water. Then the hills of the horizon⁠— + 

That is how I should make hills had I to show + 

One who would never see them what hills were like.” + 

“Yes. Sixty miles of South Downs at one glance. + 

Sometimes a man feels proud at them, as if + 

He had just created them with one mighty thought.” + 

“That house, though modern, could not be better planned + 

For its position. I never liked a new + 

House better. Could you tell me who lives in it?” + 

“No one.” “Ah⁠—and I was peopling all + 

Those windows on the south with happy eyes, + 

The terrace under them with happy feet; + 

Girls⁠—” “Sir, I know. I know. I have seen that house + 

Through mist look lovely as a castle in Spain, + 

And airier. I have thought: ‘ ’Twere happy there + 

To live.’ And I have laughed at that + 

Because I lived there then.” “Extraordinary.” + 

“Yes, with my furniture and family + 

Still in it, I, knowing every nook of it + 

And loving none, and in fact hating it.” + 

“Dear me! How could that be? But pardon me.” + 

“No offence. Doubtless the house was not to blame, + 

But the eye watching from those windows saw, + 

Many a day, day after day, mist⁠—mist + 

Like chaos surging back⁠—and felt itself + 

Alone in all the world, marooned alone. + 

We lived in clouds, on a cliff’s edge almost + 

(You see), and if clouds went, the visible earth + 

Lay too far off beneath and like a cloud. + 

I did not know it was the earth I loved + 

Until I tried to live there in the clouds + 

And the earth turned to cloud.” “You had a garden + 

Of flint and clay, too.” “True; that was real enough. + 

The flint was the one crop that never failed. + 

The clay first broke my heart, and then my back; + 

And the back heals not. There were other things + 

Real, too. In that room at the gable a child + 

Was born while the wind chilled a summer dawn: + 

Never looked grey mind on a greyer one + 

Than when the child’s cry broke above the groans.” + 

“I hope they were both spared.” “They were. Oh yes! + 

But flint and clay and childbirth were too real + 

For this cloud-castle. I had forgot the wind. + 

Pray do not let me get on to the wind. + 

You would not understand about the wind. + 

It is my subject, and compared with me + 

Those who have always lived on the firm ground + 

Are quite unreal in this matter of the wind. + 

There were whole days and nights when the wind and I + 

Between us shared the world, and the wind ruled + 

And I obeyed it and forgot the mist. + 

My past and the past of the world were in the wind. + 

Now you may say that though you understand + 

And feel for me, and so on, you yourself + 

Would find it different. You are all like that + 

If once you stand here free from wind and mist: + 

I might as well be talking to wind and mist. + 

You would believe the house-agent’s young man + 

Who gives no heed to anything I say. + 

Good morning. But one word. I want to admit + 

That I would try the house once more, if I could; + 

As I should like to try being young again.” + 