A Winter Day

I

The air is silent save where stirs

A bugling breeze among the firs;

The virgin world in white array

Waits for the bridegroom kiss of day;

All heaven blooms rarely in the east

Where skies are silvery and fleeced,

And o'er the orient hills made glad

The morning comes in wonder clad;

Oh, 'tis a time most fit to see

How beautiful the dawn can be!

             II

Wide, sparkling fields snow-vestured lie

Beneath a blue, unshadowed sky;

A glistening splendor crowns the woods

And bosky, whistling solitudes;

In hemlock glen and reedy mere

The tang of frost is sharp and clear;

Life hath a jollity and zest,

A poignancy made manifest;

Laughter and courage have their way

At noontide of a winter's day.

             III

Faint music rings in wold and dell,

The tinkling of a distant bell,

Where homestead lights with friendly glow

Glimmer across the drifted snow;

Beyond a valley dim and far

Lit by an occidental star,

Tall pines the marge of day beset

Like many a slender minaret,

Whence priest-like winds on crystal air

Summon the reverent world to prayer.