"In Memory of Jane Fraser" by Geoffrey Hill

IN MEMORY OF JANE FRASER

When snow like sheep lay in the fold

And winds went begging at each door,

And the far hills were blue with cold,

And a cold shroud lay on the moor,

She kept the siege. And every day

We watched her brooding over death

Like a strong bird above its prey.

The room filled with the kettle’s breath.

Damp curtains glued against the pane

Sealed time away. Her body froze

As if to freeze us all, and chain

Creation to a stunned repose.

She died before the world could stir.

In March the ice unloosed the brook

And water ruffled the sun’s hair,

And a few sprinkled leaves unshook.

Source of the text - Geoffrey Hill, For the Unfallen: Poems 1952-1958.  Dufour Editions, 1960, p. 23.

TJB: Several elegant, interlaced metaphors, spondaic & end-rhymed, run through Jane’s furious siege against death in a house surrounded by winter.