Poems (Trask)/January
For works with similar titles, see January.
POEMS OF THE SEASONS.
JANUARY.
The snow lies heavy on the hills, The lowland wastes are white, The sharp wind whistles shrill and cold In the great elms, to-night; And through the dim old hemlock woods It heaves a quivering sigh, And all the glittering host of stars Listen and hear the cry; While like a globe of frozen ice The moon hangs in the sky.
The hazel's dainty twigs are white, Touched by the silvery frost; The hawthorn and the cedar hedge In fleecy drifts are lost; And down upon the broad blue lake The waters take their rest Beneath the crystal coffin-lid Of ice upon their breast: A conquered warrior, pinioned down, The mill-wheel stands confessed.
Out on the river's glittering plain The skater's steel rings clear: Winter's for him the carnival Of all the beauteous year; O'er the hard-trodden frozen track The gay sleighs speed along, The iron hoof-beats keeping time To many a wild old song, And underneath the soft fur robes Young hearts beat high and strong.
Midwinter! though we own thy reign A tyrant's, yet, for all, There are some. compensations still Within thy frozen thrall! With hope, and youth, and love for ours, It's little grief to know That all outside our fire-lit home Is buried in the snow; For when we live with those we love, We bask in summer's glow.