Poems of Nature (Whittier)/A Memory
A MEMORY.
Here, while the loom of Winter weavesThe shroud of flowers and fountains,I think of thee, and summer evesAmong the Northern mountains.
When thunder tolled the twilight's close,And winds the lake were rude on,And thou wert singing, Ca' the Yowes,The bonny yowes of Cluden!
When, close and closer, hushing breath,Our circle narrowed round thee,And smiles and tears made up the wreathWherewith our silence crowned thee;
And, strangers all, we felt the tiesOf sisters and of brothers;Ah! whose of all those kindly eyesNow smile upon another's?
The sport of Time, who still apartThe waifs of life is flinging;Oh, nevermore shall heart to heartDraw nearer for that singing!
Yet when the panes are frosty-starred,And twilight's fire is gleaming,I hear the songs of Scotland's bardSound softly through my dreaming!
A song that lends to winter snowsThe glow of summer weather,—Again I hear thee ca' the yowesTo Cluden's hills of heather!