WINTER.
Cold, cold! it is very cold
Without the house; the year is old!
His pulse is faint, and his blood runs slow,
He lies, like a corpse, in his shroud of snow;
It was drawn round his limbs by a noiseless sprite;
He grew white with age in a single night.
Wrap him up close, and cover him deep:
Nothing is left for him now but to sleep!
Sleep away! dream away! take no care,
All day falls the snow through the darkened air;
Fast, fast! for it knows, firm packed together.
The clouds have laid stores in for wintry weather;
Dark, dark! like a lazy slave, the sun
Leaves his short half day's work all undone;
But the night is clear, and the stars shine forth,
And the fire-flags stream in the frosty north,
And the glistening earth in the moon's pale ray,
Looks fair with the smile of a softer day:
Red breaks the morn, and the evening glows
With the sea-shell's blush on the drifted snows,
Rose-tinted pearl! while 'mid the glooms
The flake-feathered trees show like giant plumes.
Without the house; the year is old!
His pulse is faint, and his blood runs slow,
He lies, like a corpse, in his shroud of snow;
It was drawn round his limbs by a noiseless sprite;
He grew white with age in a single night.
Wrap him up close, and cover him deep:
Nothing is left for him now but to sleep!
Sleep away! dream away! take no care,
All day falls the snow through the darkened air;
Fast, fast! for it knows, firm packed together.
The clouds have laid stores in for wintry weather;
Dark, dark! like a lazy slave, the sun
Leaves his short half day's work all undone;
But the night is clear, and the stars shine forth,
And the fire-flags stream in the frosty north,
And the glistening earth in the moon's pale ray,
Looks fair with the smile of a softer day:
Red breaks the morn, and the evening glows
With the sea-shell's blush on the drifted snows,
Rose-tinted pearl! while 'mid the glooms
The flake-feathered trees show like giant plumes.
