November is my least favorite month. Novembers in New England are sleety, cloudy, dark and gray; November has none of the beauty of October nor the promise of snow of December. Thomas Hood sums up my feelings about November pretty nicely:
No! by Thomas Hood
No sun–no moon!
No morn–no noon!
No dawn–no dusk–no proper time of day–
No sky–no earthly view–
No distance looking blue–
No road–no street–no “t’other side this way”–
No end to any Row–
No indications where the Crescents go–
No top to any steeple–
No recognitions of familiar people–
No courtesies for showing ’em–
No knowing ’em!
No traveling at all–no locomotion–
No inkling of the way–no notion–
“No go” by land or ocean–
No mail–no post–
No news from any foreign coast–
No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility–
No company–no nobility–
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member–
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds–
November!
For more Poetry Friday, visit Donna at Mainely Write.
Great rhyming in this. I’m inspired now to write in this style. Great poem.
This is the second anti-November poem I’ve read today. Poor month! At least it’s a short one. Sending you a virtual hot cup of cocoa and some healthful ease!
I read this one with my students every year and remind them of how lucky we are to live somewhere with beautiful weather in November!
With all those ‘no’s, I could’ve sworn my 2-year-old had written this! Really enjoyed it…thanks!
Sigh. Another person who doesn’t like November? The 20th is a good day :). Perhaps you’ll change your mind if you eat something peanut buttery every day this month!
Hi Katya, I love this poem. It is just so clever. I’ve read this to students every year at the beginning of November. We have such sunny weather in Colorado that the poem doesn’t fit us. Sorry to tell you that we actually like cloudy, rainy days. There aren’t many & we always need the moisture. Different strokes, huh? Thank you for sharing. I do like it a lot!
Perfect. I’ll share this with my class next week!
Wow–tell us how you really feel, Thomas Hood! Ha–I got a good laugh out of this and enjoyed the wordplay. I’m starting to feel a bit sorry for November–it’s like the goth outsider of the months, apparently:>)
Hilarious–especially the end. But I think February is much worse.