Introduction: A Mirror in the Sky 7
Tesserae 18
I
The Winter-Wise 26
Forms of Mastery 35
Imported Elements 40
Weathervane 46
II
'Whan that Aprill…' 51
Month by Month 60
Secrets and Signs 72
A Holly Branch 78
'Why fares the world thus?' 81
III
Splendour and Artifice 87
Shakespeare: Inside-Out 101
IV
Two Anatomists 117
Sky and Bones 123
Milton's Temperature 139
A Pause: On Freezeland Street 146
V
Method and Measurement 161
Reasoning with Mud 175
A Language for the Breeze 182
Dr Johnson Withstands the Weather 196
Day by Day 204
VI
Coleridge and the Storm 219
Wordsworth: Weather's Friend 228
A Flight: In Cloudland 234
VII
Shelley on Air 249
The Stillness of Keats 255
Clare's Calendar 265
Turner and the Sun 268
VIII
Companions of the Sky 279
'Drip, drip, drip' 291
Varieties of Gloom 302
Ruskin in the Age of Umber 315
Rain on a Grave 321
IX
Bright New World 329
Greyscale 350
Too Much Weather 372
Flood 390
Sources of Epigraphs and Notes 394
Select Bibliography 419
Acknowledgments 424
Sources of Illustrations 426
Index 428