The best poems about bad weather

Poets have often been drawn to the harsh weather of wind and rain, either to celebrate it as a force of nature or to lament its ubiquity (at least in the British Isles!). From the opening words of Geoffrey Chaucer‘s The Canterbury Tales onwards, English poetry has often turned to the rain. Here are ten of the very best poems about rain and stormy weather.

‘Westron Wynde‘. This song (‘Western Wind’) dates from the early sixteenth century, and the tune to which it was sung influenced a raft of English composers such as the Tudor John Taverner (not to be confused with John Tavener). However, the words to the song may be from earlier, probably from the Middle Ages. Read the rest of this entry →