JANUARY 



CLAD all in White, as the Earth looks with the 

 Snow, blowing his nails ; in his Left Arm a Billet, 

 the Sign of Aquarius standing by his side. 



DAWN OF THE YEAR 



LAST night we met several neighbours in the village, 

 gathered to hear the church clock signal 

 New the birth of a new year. As the silence was 



Year broken by the first midnight note, the 



Greetings firing of a distant gun was faintly heard. At 

 once came an answering challenge from a 

 pheasant in the park across the road ; possibly he thought 

 poachers were abroad. From the farmyard by the village 

 horsepond came an excited gabbling, a ludicrous chorus, 

 from a few vigilant geese, as if joyously surprised to find 

 themselves alive to greet a new year. A white owl drifted 

 over the pond, screaming as though he embodied the 

 lost spirit of the dying year. A shrill yapping bark came 



