By the road to the contagious hospital
 under the surge of the blue
 mottled clouds driven from the
 northeast -- a cold wind. Beyond, the
 waste of broad, muddy fields
 brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen

 patches of standing water
 the scattering of tall trees

 All along the road the reddish
 purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
 stuff of bushes and small trees
 with dead, brown leaves under them
 leafless vines --

 Lifeless in appearance, sluggish
 dazed spring approaches --

 They enter the new world naked,
 cold, uncertain of all
 save that they enter. All about them
 the cold, familiar wind --

 Now the grass, tomorrow
 the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf

 One by one objects are defined --
 It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf

 But now the stark dignity of
 entrance -- Still, the profound change
 has come upon them: rooted they
 grip down and begin to awaken