February Poems

Vignette by E. H. Garrett, Engraving by John Andrews & Son Co. Published in “A Calendar of Sonnets” by Helen Hunt Jackson, 1891. (public domain)

A Calendar of Sonnets: February by Helen Hunt Jackson

Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white;
And reigns the winter’s pregnant silence still;
No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill,
And willow stems grow daily red and bright.
These are the days when ancients held a rite
Of expiation for the old year’s ill,
And prayer to purify the new year’s will:
Fit days, ere yet the spring rains blur the sight,
Ere yet the bounding blood grows hot with haste,
And dreaming thoughts grow heavy with a greed
The ardent summer’s joy to have and taste;
Fit days, to give to last year’s losses heed,
To reckon clear the new life’s sterner need;
Fit days, for Feast of Expiation placed!

A little context: the Ancient Romans and Christians both viewed February as a month for expiation (atonement) and purification. You can learn more about that history here.

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FEBRUARY (The Poet’s Calendar) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I am lustration, and the sea is mine!
I wash the sands and headlands with my tide;
My brow is crowned with branches of the pine;
Before my chariot-wheels the fishes glide.
By me all things unclean are purified,
By me the souls of men washed white again;
E’en the unlovely tombs of those who died
Without a dirge, I cleanse from every stain.

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Here’s another, longer poem about February, which you can read here on our site.

You might want to look back at January poems, or look ahead to March poems.