Western wind, when will thou blow The small rain down can rain? Christ, if my love were in my arms And I in my bed again!This anonymous medieval poem, “Western Wind,” is a brilliant bit of verse. It’s a prayer of petition, a lament, and a longing for home, all rolled into four short lines with only two words longer than a syllable. It also compounds three themes of medieval poetry: the weather, religious faith, and romantic love.
Perhaps most importantly, this little jewel has resonated down through the ages from “a world lit only by fire”—as historian William Manchester famously described the Middle Ages—to today, a world lit by screens.
