- We did not fear them once the dull gray mornings
- No cheerless burden on our spirits laid :
- The long night watches did not bring us warnings
- That we were tenants of a house decayed.
- The early snows like dreams to us descended;
- The frost did fairy work on pane and bough;
- Beauty and power, and wonder have not ended
- How is it that we fear the winters now?
- Their house fires fall as bright on hearth and chamber:
- Their northern starlight shines as coldly clear;
- The woods still keep their holly for December;
- The world a welcome yet for the new year.
- And far away in old remembered places
- The snow-drop rises and the robin sings;
- The sun and moon look out with loving faces
- Why have our days forgot such goodly things?
- Is it that now the north wind finds us shaken
- By tempest fiercer than its bitter blast?
- And fair beliefs and friendships have forsaken,
- Like Summer's beauty, as that tempset passed?
- And life grows leafless in its pleasant valleys
- The light of promise waining from its day,
- Till mists meet even in its inward palace,
- Not like the outer mists, to melt away?
- It was not thus when dreams of love and laurels
- Gave sunshine to the Winters of our youth,
- Before its hopes had fallen in fortune's quarrels,
- Or time had bowed them with its heavy truth
- Ere yet the twilight found us strange and lonely,
- With shadows coming when the fire burns low,
- To tell of distant graves and losses only
- The past that cannot change and will not go.
- Alas ' dear friends, the Winter is within us;
- Hard is the ice that gathers round the heart,
- If petty cares and vain regrets can win us
- From Life's true heritage and better part.
- Seasons and skies rejoice, yea, worship rather;
- But nations toil and tremble even as we;
- Hoping for harvests they will never gather,
- And dreading winters they may never see.
History and Legacy of Wild Birds Including Historic Ornithology and Other Topics of Interest
06 November 2013
The Winters - A December 1856 Poem
Labels:
poetry