Winter Speech 2020

Delivered by Isaac Torcellini at Duck Day.

Scramble the Duck has made his prediction, and subsequently chose this scroll, which I am to read.

Hear ye! fellow Nutmeggers, this scroll I choose for you.
I have made my prediction now, and I guarantee—it’s true.
New Englanders, including I, have preferences of the weather
But, like all New Englanders, I look always for better.
Don’t call me pessimistic—but winter is too cold.
Fall is windy; summer, hot; and springtime brings on mold.
But as I said, I am an optimist, I look for better things.
And so for now I will complain of current weather
Because better lies ahead.

Ah! The springtime, the most popular of what I say
Is while wet, yet fun, and brings out all to play.
And being optimistic, I look for the better in all things.
And o! the growth of springtime that we can fully glean.
In spring, the sky! not full of snow, but of the warming earth
Which fills the mind of the greatness of this springtime mirth.
Bring it on! No shadow now! The darken’ sign of terror.
Woe! the fury of winds which blow snowflakes ‘round hither.
O! Be it Early Spring—have mercy, for we deserve it so.
In New England we work hard to take out toiling woe.
The shadow, o the terror! A sign of more disaster.
We see it as a sin of night, from which we’ve come out hither.
The shadow, o the terror! A thing of long ago.
For we, being of New England search for no more snow.
Because better lies ahead.

And now the clock is past the thirty-of-seven;
Be it the time, now my friends that I tell of my prediction.
Yes, be it sad, be it wrong, the shadow I have seen.
But, let us look forward with the lesson we can glean.
Yes, winter’s longer time has fallen now upon us.
O! New England, it is time that we will see the brightest.
Contentment is not taken from foul things as weather.
It is found in other things that are always for better.
If the weather is forgotten as source of what’s contents,
Then we will now o’recome what the society laments.
Yes, it is more winter. Yes, we’ll wait for warmth.
But in the night of winter we’ll find the greatest strength.
And, while this disappoints, I am still optimistic.

Six More Weeks of Winter