[ { "title": "Autumn And Winter", "author": "Algernon Charles Swinburne", "lines": [ "Three months bade wane and wax the wintering moon", "Between two dates of death, while men were fain", "Yet of the living light that all too soon", "Three months bade wane.", "", "Cold autumn, wan with wrath of wind and rain,", "Saw pass a soul sweet as the sovereign tune", "That death smote silent when he smote again.", "", "First went my friend, in life's mid light of noon,", "Who loved the lord of music: then the strain", "Whence earth was kindled like as heaven in June", "Three months bade wane.", "", "", "", "A herald soul before its master's flying", "Touched by some few moons first the darkling goal", "Where shades rose up to greet the shade, espying", "A herald soul;", "", "Shades of dead lords of music, who control", "Men living by the might of men undying,", "With strength of strains that make delight of dole.", "", "The deep dense dust on death's dim threshold lying", "Trembled with sense of kindling sound that stole", "Through darkness, and the night gave ear, descrying", "A herald soul.", "", "", "", "One went before, one after, but so fast", "They seem gone hence together, from the shore", "Whence we now gaze: yet ere the mightier passed", "One went before;", "", "One whose whole heart of love, being set of yore", "On that high joy which music lends us, cast", "Light round him forth of music's radiant store.", "", "Then went, while earth on winter glared aghast,", "The mortal god he worshipped, through the door", "Wherethrough so late, his lover to the last,", "One went before.", "", "", "", "A star had set an hour before the sun", "Sank from the skies wherethrough his heart's pulse yet", "Thrills audibly: but few took heed, or none,", "A star had set.", "", "All heaven rings back, sonorous with regret,", "The deep dirge of the sunset: how should one", "Soft star be missed in all the concourse met?", "", "But, O sweet single heart whose work is done,", "Whose songs are silent, how should I forget", "That ere the sunset's fiery goal was won", "A star had set?" ], "linecount": "44" }, { "title": "Winter.", "author": "Alexander Pope", "lines": [ "THE FOURTH PASTORAL, OR DAPHNE.", "", "TO THE MEMORY OF MRS TEMPEST.", "", "LYCIDAS.", "", "Thyrsis, the music of that murmuring spring", "Is not so mournful as the strains you sing;", "Nor rivers winding through the vales below,", "So sweetly warble, or so smoothly flow.", "Now sleeping flocks on their soft fleeces lie,", "The moon, serene in glory, mounts the sky,", "While silent birds forget their tuneful lays,", "Oh sing of Daphne's fate, and Daphne's praise!", "", "THYRSIS.", "", "Behold the groves that shine with silver frost,", "Their beauty wither'd, and their verdure lost.", "Here shall I try the sweet Alexis' strain,", "That call'd the listening Dryads to the plain?", "Thames heard the numbers as he flow'd along,", "And bade his willows learn the moving song.", "", "LYCIDAS.", "", "So may kind rains their vital moisture yield", "And swell the future harvest of the field.", "Begin; this charge the dying Daphne gave,", "And said, 'Ye shepherds, sing around my grave!'", "Sing, while beside the shaded tomb I mourn,", "And with fresh bays her rural shrine adorn.", "", "THYRSIS.", "", "Ye gentle Muses, leave your crystal spring,", "Let nymphs and sylvans cypress garlands bring;", "Ye weeping Loves, the stream with myrtles hide,", "And break your bows, as when Adonis died;", "And with your golden darts, now useless grown,", "Inscribe a verse on this relenting stone:", "'Let Nature change, let Heaven and Earth deplore,", "Fair Daphne's dead, and Love is now no more!'", "'Tis done, and Nature's various charms decay;", "See gloomy clouds obscure the cheerful day!", "Now hung with pearls the dropping trees appear,", "Their faded honours scatter'd on her bier.", "See where, on earth, the flowery glories lie,", "With her they flourish'd, and with her they die.", "Ah, what avail the beauties Nature wore,", "Fair Daphne's dead, and Beauty is no more!", "", "For her the flocks refuse their verdant food,", "The thirsty heifers shun the gliding flood,", "The silver swans her hapless fate bemoan,", "In notes more sad than when they sing their own;", "In hollow caves sweet Echo silent lies,", "Silent, or only to her name replies;", "Her name with pleasure once she taught the shore;", "Now Daphne's dead, and Pleasure is no more!", "", "No grateful dews descend from evening skies,", "Nor morning odours from the flowers arise;", "No rich perfumes refresh the fruitful field,", "Nor fragrant herbs their native incense yield.", "The balmy zephyrs, silent since her death,", "Lament the ceasing of a sweeter breath;", "Th' industrious bees neglect their golden store;", "Fair Daphne's dead, and Sweetness is no more!", "", "No more the mounting larks, while Daphne sings,", "Shall, listening in mid air, suspend their wings;", "No more the birds shall imitate her lays,", "Or, hush'd with wonder, hearken from the sprays:", "No more the streams their murmurs shall forbear,", "A sweeter music than their own to hear;", "But tell the reeds, and tell the vocal shore,", "Fair Daphne's dead, and Music is no more!", "", "Her fate is whisper'd by the gentle breeze,", "And told in sighs to all the trembling trees;", "The trembling trees, in every plain and wood,", "Her fate remurmur to the silver flood;", "The silver flood, so lately calm, appears", "Swell'd with new passion, and o'erflows with tears;", "The winds and trees and floods her death deplore,", "Daphne, our grief, our glory now no more!", "", "But see! where Daphne wondering mounts on high", "Above the clouds, above the starry sky!", "Eternal beauties grace the shining scene,", "Fields ever fresh, and groves for ever green!", "There while you rest in amaranthine bowers,", "Or from those meads select unfading flowers,", "Behold us kindly, who your name implore,", "Daphne, our goddess, and our grief no more!", "", "LYCIDAS.", "", "How all things listen, while thy Muse complains!", "Such silence waits on Philomela's strains,", "In some still evening, when the whispering breeze", "Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees.", "To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb shall bleed,", "If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed.", "While plants their shade, or flowers their odours give,", "Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise shall live!", "", "THYRSIS.", "", "But see, Orion sheds unwholesome dews;", "Arise, the pines a noxious shade diffuse;", "Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay,", "Time conquers all, and we must Time obey.", "Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, streams, and groves;", "Adieu, ye shepherds, rural lays, and loves;", "Adieu, my flocks; farewell, ye sylvan crew;", "Daphne, farewell; and all the world, adieu!" ], "linecount": "100" }, { "title": "Winter Stores", "author": "Charlotte Bronte", "lines": [ "WE take from life one little share,", "And say that this shall be", "A space, redeemed from toil and care,", "From tears and sadness free.", "", "And, haply, Death unstrings his bow", "And Sorrow stands apart,", "And, for a little while, we know", "The sunshine of the heart.", "", "Existence seems a summer eve,", "Warm, soft, and full of peace;", "Our free, unfettered feelings give", "The soul its full release.", "", "A moment, then, it takes the power,", "To call up thoughts that throw", "Around that charmed and hallowed hour,", "This life's divinest glow.", "", "But Time, though viewlessly it flies,", "And slowly, will not stay;", "Alike, through clear and clouded skies,", "It cleaves its silent way.", "", "Alike the bitter cup of grief,", "Alike the draught of bliss,", "Its progress leaves but moment brief", "For baffled lips to kiss.", "", "The sparkling draught is dried away,", "The hour of rest is gone,", "And urgent voices, round us, say,", "' Ho, lingerer, hasten on !'", "", "And has the soul, then, only gained,", "From this brief time of ease,", "A moment's rest, when overstrained,", "One hurried glimpse of peace ?", "", "No; while the sun shone kindly o'er us,", "And flowers bloomed round our feet,­", "While many a bud of joy before us", "Unclosed its petals sweet,­", "", "An unseen work within was plying;", "Like honey-seeking bee,", "From flower to flower, unwearied, flying,", "Laboured one faculty,­", "", "Thoughtful for Winter's future sorrow,", "Its gloom and scarcity;", "Prescient to-day, of want to-morrow,", "Toiled quiet Memory.", "", "'Tis she that from each transient pleasure", "Extracts a lasting good;", "'Tis she that finds, in summer, treasure", "To serve for winter's food.", "", "And when Youth's summer day is vanished,", "And Age brings Winter's stress,", "Her stores, with hoarded sweets replenished,", "Life's evening hours will bless." ], "linecount": "52" }, { "title": "Winter: My Secret", "author": "Christina Rossetti", "lines": [ "I tell my secret? No indeed, not I:", "Perhaps some day, who knows?", "But not today; it froze, and blows, and snows,", "And you're too curious: fie!", "You want to hear it? well:", "Only, my secret's mine, and I won't tell.", "", "Or, after all, perhaps there's none:", "Suppose there is no secret after all,", "But only just my fun.", "Today's a nipping day, a biting day;", "In which one wants a shawl,", "A veil, a cloak, and other wraps:", "I cannot ope to every one who taps,", "And let the draughts come whistling thro' my hall;", "Come bounding and surrounding me,", "Come buffeting, astounding me,", "Nipping and clipping thro' my wraps and all.", "I wear my mask for warmth: who ever shows", "His nose to Russian snows", "To be pecked at by every wind that blows?", "You would not peck? I thank you for good will,", "Believe, but leave that truth untested still.", "", "Spring's and expansive time: yet I don't trust", "March with its peck of dust,", "Nor April with its rainbow-crowned brief showers,", "Nor even May, whose flowers", "One frost may wither thro' the sunless hours.", "Perhaps some languid summer day,", "When drowsy birds sing less and less,", "And golden fruit is ripening to excess,", "If there's not too much sun nor too much cloud,", "And the warm wind is neither still nor loud,", "Perhaps my secret I may say,", "Or you may guess." ], "linecount": "34" }, { "title": "Some, too fragile for winter winds", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Some, too fragile for winter winds", "The thoughtful grave encloses --", "Tenderly tucking them in from frost", "Before their feet are cold.", "", "Never the treasures in her nest", "The cautious grave exposes,", "Building where schoolboy dare not look,", "And sportsman is not bold.", "", "This covert have all the children", "Early aged, and often cold,", "Sparrow, unnoticed by the Father --", "Lambs for whom time had not a fold." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Winter under cultivation", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Winter under cultivation", "Is as arable as Spring." ], "linecount": "2" }, { "title": "Winter is good -- his Hoar Delights", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Winter is good -- his Hoar Delights", "Italic flavor yield", "To Intellects inebriate", "With Summer, or the World --", "", "Generic as a Quarry", "And hearty -- as a Rose --", "Invited with Asperity", "But welcome when he goes." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "The Winters are so short", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The Winters are so short --", "I'm hardly justified", "In sending all the Birds away --", "And moving into Pod --", "", "Myself -- for scarcely settled --", "The Phoebes have begun --", "And then -- it's time to strike my Tent --", "And open House -- again --", "", "It's mostly, interruptions --", "My Summer -- is despoiled --", "Because there was a Winter -- once --", "And al the Cattle -- starved --", "", "And so there was a Deluge --", "And swept the World away --", "But Ararat's a Legend -- now --", "And no one credits Noah --" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "In Winter in my Room", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "In Winter in my Room", "I came upon a Worm --", "Pink, lank and warm --", "But as he was a worm", "And worms presume", "Not quite with him at home --", "Secured him by a string", "To something neighboring", "And went along.", "", "A Trifle afterward", "A thing occurred", "I'd not believe it if I heard", "But state with creeping blood --", "A snake with mottles rare", "Surveyed my chamber floor", "In feature as the worm before", "But ringed with power --", "", "The very string with which", "I tied him -- too", "When he was mean and new", "That string was there --", "", "I shrank -- \"How fair you are\"!", "Propitiation's claw --", "\"Afraid,\" he hissed", "\"Of me\"?", "\"No cordiality\" --", "He fathomed me --", "Then to a Rhythm Slim", "Secreted in his Form", "As Patterns swim", "Projected him.", "", "That time I flew", "Both eyes his way", "Lest he pursue", "Nor ever ceased to run", "Till in a distant Town", "Towns on from mine", "I set me down", "This was a dream." ], "linecount": "39" }, { "title": "Winter Heavens", "author": "George Meredith", "lines": [ "Sharp is the night, but stars with frost alive", "Leap off the rim of earth across the dome.", "It is a night to make the heavens our home", "More than the nest whereto apace we strive.", "Lengths down our road each fir-tree seems a hive,", "In swarms outrushing from the golden comb.", "They waken waves of thoughts that burst to foam:", "The living throb in me, the dead revive.", "Yon mantle clothes us: there, past mortal breath,", "Life glistens on the river of the death.", "It folds us, flesh and dust; and have we knelt,", "Or never knelt, or eyed as kine the springs", "Of radiance, the radiance enrings:", "And this is the soul's haven to have felt." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Woods in Winter", "author": "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow", "lines": [ "When winter winds are piercing chill,", "And through the hawthorn blows the gale,", "With solemn feet I tread the hill,", "That overbrows the lonely vale.", "", "O'er the bare upland, and away", "Through the long reach of desert woods,", "The embracing sunbeams chastely play,", "And gladden these deep solitudes.", "", "Where, twisted round the barren oak,", "The summer vine in beauty clung,", "And summer winds the stillness broke,", "The crystal icicle is hung.", "", "Where, from their frozen urns, mute springs", "Pour out the river's gradual tide,", "Shrilly the skater's iron rings,", "And voices fill the woodland side.", "", "Alas! how changed from the fair scene,", "When birds sang out their mellow lay,", "And winds were soft, and woods were green,", "And the song ceased not with the day!", "", "But still wild music is abroad,", "Pale, desert woods! within your crowd;", "And gathering winds, in hoarse accord,", "Amid the vocal reeds pipe loud.", "", "Chill airs and wintry winds! my ear", "Has grown familiar with your song;", "I hear it in the opening year,", "I listen, and it cheers me long." ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "The Seasons: Winter", "author": "James Thomson", "lines": [ "See! Winter comes, to rule the varied Year,", "Sullen, and sad; with all his rising Train,", "Vapours, and Clouds, and Storms: Be these my Theme,", "These, that exalt the Soul to solemn Thought,", "And heavenly musing. Welcome kindred Glooms!", "Wish'd, wint'ry, Horrors, hail! -- With frequent Foot,", "Pleas'd, have I, in my cheerful Morn of Life,", "When, nurs'd by careless Solitude, I liv'd,", "And sung of Nature with unceasing Joy,", "Pleas'd, have I wander'd thro' your rough Domains;", "Trod the pure, virgin, Snows, my self as pure:", "Heard the Winds roar, and the big Torrent burst:", "Or seen the deep, fermenting, Tempest brew'd,", "In the red, evening, Sky. -- Thus pass'd the Time,", "Till, thro' the opening Chambers of the South,", "Look'd out the joyous Spring, look'd out, and smil'd.", "THEE too, Inspirer of the toiling Swain!", "Fair AUTUMN, yellow rob'd! I'll sing of thee,", "Of thy last, temper'd, Days, and sunny Calms;", "When all the golden Hours are on the Wing,", "Attending thy Retreat, and round thy Wain,", "Slow-rolling, onward to the Southern Sky.", "", "BEHOLD! the well-pois'd Hornet, hovering, hangs,", "With quivering Pinions, in the genial Blaze;", "Flys off, in airy Circles: then returns,", "And hums, and dances to the beating Ray.", "Nor shall the Man, that, musing, walks alone,", "And, heedless, strays within his radiant Lists,", "Go unchastis'd away. -- Sometimes, a Fleece", "Of Clouds, wide-scattering, with a lucid Veil,", "Soft, shadow o'er th'unruffled Face of Heaven;", "And, thro' their dewy Sluices, shed the Sun,", "With temper'd Influence down. Then is the Time,", "For those, whom Wisdom, and whom Nature charm,", "To steal themselves from the degenerate Croud,", "And soar above this little Scene of Things:", "To tread low-thoughted Vice beneath their Feet:", "To lay their Passions in a gentle Calm,", "And woo lone Quiet, in her silent Walks.", "", "NOW, solitary, and in pensive Guise,", "Oft, let me wander o'er the russet Mead,", "Or thro' the pining Grove; where scarce is heard", "One dying Strain, to chear the Woodman's Toil:", "Sad Philomel, perchance, pours forth her Plaint,", "Far, thro' the withering Copse. Mean while, the Leaves,", "That, late, the Forest clad with lively Green,", "Nipt by the drizzly Night, and Sallow-hu'd,", "Fall, wavering, thro' the Air; or shower amain,", "Urg'd by the Breeze, that sobs amid the Boughs.", "Then list'ning Hares forsake the rusling Woods,", "And, starting at the frequent Noise, escape", "To the rough Stubble, and the rushy Fen.", "Then Woodcocks, o'er the fluctuating Main,", "That glimmers to the Glimpses of the Moon,", "Stretch their long Voyage to the woodland Glade:", "Where, wheeling with uncertain Flight, they mock", "The nimble Fowler's Aim. -- Now Nature droops;", "Languish the living Herbs, with pale Decay:", "And all the various Family of Flowers", "Their sunny Robes resign. The falling Fruits,", "Thro' the still Night, forsake the Parent-Bough,", "That, in the first, grey, Glances of the Dawn,", "Looks wild, and wonders at the wintry Waste.", "", "THE Year, yet pleasing, but declining fast,", "Soft, o'er the secret Soul, in gentle Gales,", "A Philosophic Melancholly breathes,", "And bears the swelling Thought aloft to Heaven.", "Then forming Fancy rouses to conceive,", "What never mingled with the Vulgar's Dream:", "Then wake the tender Pang, the pitying Tear,", "The Sigh for suffering Worth, the Wish prefer'd", "For Humankind, the Joy to see them bless'd,", "And all the Social Off-spring of the Heart!", "", "OH! bear me then to high, embowering, Shades;", "To twilight Groves, and visionary Vales;", "To weeping Grottos, and to hoary Caves;", "Where Angel-Forms are seen, and Voices heard,", "Sigh'd in low Whispers, that abstract the Soul,", "From outward Sense, far into Worlds remote.", "", "NOW, when the Western Sun withdraws the Day,", "And humid Evening, gliding o'er the Sky,", "In her chill Progress, checks the straggling Beams,", "And robs them of their gather'd, vapoury, Prey,", "Where Marshes stagnate, and where Rivers wind,", "Cluster the rolling Fogs, and swim along", "The dusky-mantled Lawn: then slow descend,", "Once more to mingle with their Watry Friends.", "The vivid Stars shine out, in radiant Files;", "And boundless Ether glows, till the fair Moon", "Shows her broad Visage, in the crimson'd East;", "Now, stooping, seems to kiss the passing Cloud:", "Now, o'er the pure Cerulean, rides sublime.", "Wide the pale Deluge floats, with silver Waves,", "O'er the sky'd Mountain, to the low-laid Vale;", "From the white Rocks, with dim Reflexion, gleams,", "And faintly glitters thro' the waving Shades.", "", "ALL Night, abundant Dews, unnoted, fall,", "And, at Return of Morning, silver o'er", "The Face of Mother-Earth; from every Branch", "Depending, tremble the translucent Gems,", "And, quivering, seem to fall away, yet cling,", "And sparkle in the Sun, whose rising Eye,", "With Fogs bedim'd, portends a beauteous Day.", "", "NOW, giddy Youth, whom headlong Passions fire,", "Rouse the wild Game, and stain the guiltless Grove,", "With Violence, and Death; yet call it Sport,", "To scatter Ruin thro' the Realms of Love,", "And Peace, that thinks no Ill: But These, the Muse,", "Whose Charity, unlimited, extends", "As wide as Nature works, disdains to sing,", "Returning to her nobler Theme in view --", "", "FOR, see! where Winter comes, himself, confest,", "Striding the gloomy Blast. First Rains obscure", "Drive thro' the mingling Skies, with Tempest foul;", "Beat on the Mountain's Brow, and shake the Woods,", "That, sounding, wave below. The dreary Plain", "Lies overwhelm'd, and lost. The bellying Clouds", "Combine, and deepening into Night, shut up", "The Day's fair Face. The Wanderers of Heaven,", "Each to his Home, retire; save those that love", "To take their Pastime in the troubled Air,", "And, skimming, flutter round the dimply Flood.", "The Cattle, from th'untasted Fields, return,", "And ask, with Meaning low, their wonted Stalls;", "Or ruminate in the contiguous Shade:", "Thither, the houshold, feathery, People croud,", "The crested Cock, with all his female Train,", "Pensive, and wet. Mean while, the Cottage-Swain", "Hangs o'er th'enlivening Blaze, and, taleful, there,", "Recounts his simple Frolic: Much he talks,", "And much he laughs, nor recks the Storm that blows", "Without, and rattles on his humble Roof.", "", "AT last, the muddy Deluge pours along,", "Resistless, roaring; dreadful down it comes", "From the chapt Mountain, and the mossy Wild,", "Tumbling thro' Rocks abrupt, and sounding far:", "Then o'er the sanded Valley, floating, spreads,", "Calm, sluggish, silent; till again constrain'd,", "Betwixt two meeting Hills, it bursts a Way,", "Where Rocks, and Woods o'erhang the turbid Stream.", "There gathering triple Force, rapid, and deep,", "It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders thro'.", "", "NATURE! great Parent! whose directing Hand", "Rolls round the Seasons of the changeful Year,", "How mighty! how majestick are thy Works!", "With what a pleasing Dread they swell the Soul,", "That sees, astonish'd! and, astonish'd sings!", "You too, ye Winds! that now begin to blow,", "With boisterous Sweep, I raise my Voice to you.", "Where are your Stores, ye viewless Beings! say?", "Where your aerial Magazines reserv'd,", "Against the Day of Tempest perilous?", "In what untravel'd Country of the Air,", "Hush'd in still Silence, sleep you, when 'tis calm?", "", "LATE, in the louring Sky, red, fiery, Streaks", "Begin to flush about; the reeling Clouds", "Stagger with dizzy Aim, as doubting yet", "Which Master to obey: while rising, slow,", "Sad, in the Leaden-colour'd East, the Moon", "Wears a bleak Circle round her sully'd Orb.", "Then issues forth the Storm, with loud Control,", "And the thin Fabrick of the pillar'd Air", "O'erturns, at once. Prone, on th'uncertain Main,", "Descends th'Etherial Force, and plows its Waves,", "With dreadful Rift: from the mid-Deep, appears,", "Surge after Surge, the rising, wat'ry, War.", "Whitening, the angry Billows rowl immense,", "And roar their Terrors, thro' the shuddering Soul", "Of feeble Man, amidst their Fury caught,", "And, dash'd upon his Fate: Then, o'er the Cliff,", "Where dwells the Sea-Mew, unconfin'd, they fly,", "And, hurrying, swallow up the steril Shore.", "", "THE Mountain growls; and all its sturdy Sons", "Stoop to the Bottom of the Rocks they shade:", "Lone, on its Midnight-Side, and all aghast,", "The dark, way-faring, Stranger, breathless, toils,", "And climbs against the Blast --", "Low, waves the rooted Forest, vex'd, and sheds", "What of its leafy Honours yet remains.", "Thus, struggling thro' the dissipated Grove,", "The whirling Tempest raves along the Plain;", "And, on the Cottage thacht, or lordly Dome,", "Keen-fastening, shakes 'em to the solid Base.", "Sleep, frighted, flies; the hollow Chimney howls,", "The Windows rattle, and the Hinges creak.", "", "THEN, too, they say, thro' all the burthen'd Air,", "Long Groans are heard, shrill Sounds, and distant Sighs,", "That, murmur'd by the Demon of the Night,", "Warn the devoted Wretch of Woe, and Death!", "Wild Uproar lords it wide: the Clouds commixt,", "With Stars, swift-gliding, sweep along the Sky.", "All Nature reels. -- But hark! the Almighty speaks:", "Instant, the chidden Storm begins to pant,", "And dies, at once, into a noiseless Calm.", "", "AS yet, 'tis Midnight's Reign; the weary Clouds,", "Slow-meeting, mingle into solid Gloom:", "Now, while the drousy World lies lost in Sleep,", "Let me associate with the low-brow'd Night,", "And Contemplation, her sedate Compeer;", "Let me shake off th'intrusive Cares of Day,", "And lay the medling Senses all aside.", "", "AND now, ye lying Vanities of Life!", "You ever-tempting, ever-cheating Train!", "Where are you now? and what is your Amount?", "Vexation, Disappointment, and Remorse.", "Sad, sickening, Thought! and yet, deluded Man,", "A Scene of wild, disjointed, Visions past,", "And broken Slumbers, rises, still resolv'd,", "With new-flush'd Hopes, to run your giddy Round.", "", "FATHER of Light, and Life! Thou Good Supreme!", "O! teach me what is Good! teach me thy self!", "Save me from Folly, Vanity and Vice,", "From every low Pursuit! and feed my Soul,", "With Knowledge, conscious Peace, and Vertue pure,", "Sacred, substantial, never-fading Bliss!", "", "LO! from the livid East, or piercing North,", "Thick Clouds ascend, in whose capacious Womb,", "A vapoury Deluge lies, to Snow congeal'd:", "Heavy, they roll their fleecy World along;", "And the Sky saddens with th'impending Storm.", "Thro' the hush'd Air, the whitening Shower descends,", "At first, thin-wavering; till, at last, the Flakes", "Fall broad, and wide, and fast, dimming the Day,", "With a continual Flow. See! sudden, hoar'd,", "The Woods beneath the stainless Burden bow,", "Blackning, along the mazy Stream it melts;", "Earth's universal Face, deep-hid, and chill,", "Is all one, dazzling, Waste. The Labourer-Ox", "Stands cover'd o'er with Snow, and then demands", "The Fruit of all his Toil. The Fowls of Heaven,", "Tam'd by the cruel Season, croud around", "The winnowing Store, and claim the little Boon,", "That Providence allows. The foodless Wilds", "Pour forth their brown Inhabitants; the Hare,", "Tho' timorous of Heart, and hard beset", "By Death, in various Forms, dark Snares, and Dogs,", "And more unpitying Men, the Garden seeks,", "Urg'd on by fearless Want. The bleating Kind", "Eye the bleak Heavens, and next, the glistening Earth,", "With Looks of dumb Despair; then sad, dispers'd,", "Dig, for the wither'd Herb, thro' Heaps of Snow.", "", "NOW, Shepherds, to your helpless Charge be kind;", "Baffle the raging Year, and fill their Penns", "With Food, at will: lodge them below the Blast,", "And watch them strict; for from the bellowing East,", "In this dire Season, oft the Whirlwind's Wing", "Sweeps up the Burthen of whole wintry Plains,", "In one fierce Blast, and o'er th'unhappy Flocks,", "Lodg'd in the Hollow of two neighbouring Hills,", "The billowy Tempest whelms; till, upwards urg'd,", "The Valley to a shining Mountain swells,", "That curls its Wreaths amid the freezing Sky.", "", "NOW, all amid the Rigours of the Year,", "In the wild Depth of Winter, while without", "The ceaseless Winds blow keen, be my Retreat", "A rural, shelter'd, solitary, Scene;", "Where ruddy Fire, and beaming Tapers join", "To chase the chearless Gloom: there let me sit,", "And hold high Converse with the mighty Dead,", "Sages of ancient Time, as Gods rever'd,", "As Gods beneficent, who blest Mankind,", "With Arts, and Arms, and humaniz'd a World,", "Rous'd at th'inspiring Thought -- I throw aside", "The long-liv'd Volume, and, deep-musing, hail", "The sacred Shades, that, slowly-rising, pass", "Before my wondering Eyes -- First, Socrates,", "Truth's early Champion, Martyr for his God:", "Solon, the next, who built his Commonweal,", "On Equity's firm Base: Lycurgus, then,", "Severely good, and him of rugged Rome,", "Numa, who soften'd her rapacious Sons.", "Cimon sweet-soul'd, and Aristides just.", "Unconquer'd Cato, virtuous in Extreme;", "With that attemper'd Heroe, mild, and firm,", "Who wept the Brother, while the Tyrant bled.", "Scipio, the humane Warriour, gently brave,", "Fair Learning's Friend; who early sought the Shade,", "To dwell, with Innocence, and Truth, retir'd.", "And, equal to the best, the Theban, He", "Who, single, rais'd his Country into Fame.", "Thousands behind, the Boast of Greece and Rome,", "Whom Vertue owns, the Tribute of a Verse", "Demand, but who can count the Stars of Heaven?", "Who sing their Influence on this lower World?", "But see who yonder comes! nor comes alone,", "With sober State, and of majestic Mien,", "The Sister-Muses in his Train -- 'Tis He!", "Maro! the best of Poets, and of Men!", "Great Homer too appears, of daring Wing!", "Parent of Song! and, equal, by his Side,", "The British Muse, join'd Hand in Hand, they walk,", "Darkling, nor miss their Way to Fame's Ascent.", "", "Society divine! Immortal Minds!", "Still visit thus my Nights, for you reserv'd,", "And mount my soaring Soul to Deeds like yours.", "Silence! thou lonely Power! the Door be thine:", "See, on the hallow'd Hour, that none intrude,", "Save Lycidas, the Friend, with Sense refin'd,", "Learning digested well, exalted Faith,", "Unstudy'd Wit, and Humour ever gay.", "", "CLEAR Frost succeeds, and thro' the blew Serene,", "For Sight too fine, th'Ætherial Nitre flies,", "To bake the Glebe, and bind the slip'ry Flood.", "This of the wintry Season is the Prime;", "Pure are the Days, and lustrous are the Nights,", "Brighten'd with starry Worlds, till then unseen.", "Mean while, the Orient, darkly red, breathes forth", "An Icy Gale, that, in its mid Career,", "Arrests the bickering Stream. The nightly Sky,", "And all her glowing Constellations pour", "Their rigid Influence down: It freezes on", "Till Morn, late-rising, o'er the drooping World,", "Lifts her pale Eye, unjoyous: then appears", "The various Labour of the silent Night,", "The pendant Isicle, the Frost-Work fair,", "Where thousand Figures rise, the crusted Snow,", "Tho' white, made whiter, by the fining North.", "On blithsome Frolics bent, the youthful Swains,", "While every Work of Man is laid at Rest,", "Rush o'er the watry Plains, and, shuddering, view", "The fearful Deeps below: or with the Gun,", "And faithful Spaniel, range the ravag'd Fields,", "And, adding to the Ruins of the Year,", "Distress the Feathery, or the Footed Game.", "", "BUT hark! the nightly Winds, with hollow Voice,", "Blow, blustering, from the South -- the Frost subdu'd,", "Gradual, resolves into a weeping Thaw.", "Spotted, the Mountains shine: loose Sleet descends,", "And floods the Country round: the Rivers swell,", "Impatient for the Day. -- Those sullen Seas,", "That wash th'ungenial Pole, will rest no more,", "Beneath the Shackles of the mighty North;", "But, rousing all their Waves, resistless heave, --", "And hark! -- the length'ning Roar, continuous, runs", "Athwart the rifted Main; at once, it bursts,", "And piles a thousand Mountains to the Clouds!", "Ill fares the Bark, the Wretches' last Resort,", "That, lost amid the floating Fragments, moors", "Beneath the Shelter of an Icy Isle;", "While Night o'erwhelms the Sea, and Horror looks", "More horrible. Can human Hearts endure", "Th'assembled Mischiefs, that besiege them round:", "Unlist'ning Hunger, fainting Weariness,", "The Roar of Winds, and Waves, the Crush of Ice,", "Now, ceasing, now, renew'd, with louder Rage,", "And bellowing round the Main: Nations remote,", "Shook from their Midnight-Slumbers, deem they hear", "Portentous Thunder, in the troubled Sky.", "More to embroil the Deep, Leviathan,", "And his unweildy Train, in horrid Sport,", "Tempest the loosen'd Brine; while, thro' the Gloom,", "Far, from the dire, unhospitable Shore,", "The Lyon's Rage, the Wolf's sad Howl is heard,", "And all the fell Society of Night.", "Yet, Providence, that ever-waking Eye", "Looks down, with Pity, on the fruitless Toil", "Of Mortals, lost to Hope, and lights them safe,", "Thro' all this dreary Labyrinth of Fate.", "", "'TIS done! -- Dread WINTER has subdu'd the Year,", "And reigns, tremenduous, o'er the desart Plains!", "How dead the Vegetable Kingdom lies!", "How dumb the Tuneful! Horror wide extends", "His solitary Empire -- Now, fond Man!", "Behold thy pictur'd Life: pass some few Years,", "Thy flow'ring SPRING, thy short-liv'd SUMMER's Strength,", "Thy sober AUTUMN, fading into Age,", "And pale, concluding, WINTER shuts thy Scene,", "And shrouds Thee in the Grave -- where now, are fled", "Those Dreams of Greatness? those unsolid Hopes", "Of Happiness? those Longings after Fame?", "Those restless Cares? those busy, bustling Days?", "Those Nights of secret Guilt? those veering Thoughts,", "Flutt'ring 'twixt Good, and Ill, that shar'd thy Life?", "All, now, are vanish'd! Vertue, sole, survives,", "Immortal, Mankind's never-failing Friend,", "His Guide to Happiness on high -- and see!", "'Tis come, the Glorious Morn! the second Birth", "Of Heaven, and Earth! -- awakening Nature hears", "Th'Almighty Trumpet's Voice, and starts to Life,", "Renew'd, unfading. Now, th'Eternal Scheme,", "That Dark Perplexity, that Mystic Maze,", "Which Sight cou'd never trace, nor Heart conceive,", "To Reason's Eye, refin'd, clears up apace.", "Angels, and Men, astonish'd, pause -- and dread", "To travel thro' the Depths of Providence,", "Untry'd, unbounded. Ye vain Learned! see,", "And, prostrate in the Dust, adore that Power,", "And Goodness, oft arraign'd. See now the Cause,", "Why conscious Worth, oppress'd, in secret long", "Mourn'd, unregarded: Why the Good Man's Share", "In Life, was Gall, and Bitterness of Soul:", "Why the lone Widow, and her Orphans, pin'd,", "In starving Solitude; while Luxury,", "In Palaces, lay prompting her low Thought,", "To form unreal Wants: why Heaven-born Faith,", "And Charity, prime Grace! wore the red Marks", "Of Persecution's Scourge: why licens'd Pain,", "That cruel Spoiler, that embosom'd Foe,", "Imbitter'd all our Bliss. Ye Good Distrest!", "Ye Noble Few! that, here, unbending, stand", "Beneath Life's Pressures -- yet a little while,", "And all your Woes are past. Time swiftly fleets,", "And wish'd Eternity, approaching, brings", "Life undecaying, Love without Allay,", "Pure flowing Joy, and Happiness sincere." ], "linecount": "405" }, { "title": "Flowers in Winter", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "How strange to greet, this frosty morn,", "In graceful counterfeit of flower,", "These children of the meadows, born", "Of sunshine and of showers!", "", "How well the conscious wood retains", "The pictures of its flower-sown home,", "The lights and shades, the purple stains,", "And golden hues of bloom!", "", "It was a happy thought to bring", "To the dark season's frost and rime", "This painted memory of spring,", "This dream of summertime.", "", "Our hearts are lighter for its sake,", "Our fancy's age renews its youth,", "And dim-remembered fictions take", "The guise of present truth.", "", "A wizard of the Merrimac, -", "So old ancestral legends say, -", "Could call green leaf and blossom back", "To frosted stem and spray.", "", "The dry logs of the cottage wall,", "Beneath his touch, put out their leaves;", "The clay-bound swallow, at his call,", "Played round the icy eaves.", "", "The settler saw his oaken flail", "Take bud, and bloom before his eyes;", "From frozen pools he saw the pale", "Sweet summer lilies rise.", "", "To their old homes, by man profaned", "Came the sad dryads, exiled long,", "And through their leafy tongues complained", "Of household use and wrong.", "", "The beechen platter sprouted wild,", "The pipkin wore its old-time green,", "The cradle o'er the sleeping child", "Became a leafy screen.", "", "Haply our gentle friend hath met,", "While wandering in her sylvan quest,", "Haunting his native woodlands yet,", "That Druid of the West;", "", "And while the dew on leaf and flower", "Glistened in the moonlight clear and still,", "Learned the dusk wizard's spell of power,", "And caught his trick of skill.", "", "But welcome, be it new or old,", "The gift which makes the day more bright,", "And paints, upon the ground of cold", "And darkness, warmth and light!", "", "Without is neither gold nor green;", "Within, for birds, the birch-logs sing;", "Yet, summer-like, we sit between", "The autumn and the spring.", "", "The one, with bridal blush of rose,", "And sweetest breath of woodland balm,", "And one whose matron lips unclose", "In smiles of saintly calm.", "", "Fill soft and deep, O winter snow!", "The sweet azalea's oaken dells,", "And hide the banks where roses blow", "And swing the azure bells!", "", "O'erlay the amber violet's leaves,", "The purple aster's brookside home,", "Guard all the flowers her pencil gives", "A live beyond their bloom.", "", "And she, when spring comes round again,", "By greening slope and singing flood", "Shall wander, seeking, not in vain", "Her darlings of the wood." ], "linecount": "68" }, { "title": "Snowbound, a Winter Idyl", "author": "John Greenleaf Whittier", "lines": [ "To the Memory of the Household It Describes", "", "This Poem is Dedicated by the Author", "", "\"As the Spirit of Darkness be stronger in the dark, so Good Spirits, which be Angels of Light, are augmented not only by the Divine light of the Sun, but also by our common Wood Fire: and as the Celestial Fire drives away dark spirits, so also this our fire of Wood doth the same.\"", "Cor. Agrippa, Occult Philosophy, Book I, ch. v.", "", "", "\"Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,", "Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,", "Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air", "Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,", "And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.", "The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet", "Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit", "Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed", "In a tumultuous privacy of Storm.\"", "Emerson,The Snow Storm.", "", "", "The sun that brief December day", "Rose cheerless over hills of gray,", "And, darkly circled, gave at noon", "A sadder light than waning moon.", "Slow tracing down the thickening sky", "Its mute and ominous prophecy,", "A portent seeming less than threat,", "It sank from sight before it set.", "A chill no coat, however stout,", "Of homespun stuff could quite shut out,", "A hard, dull bitterness of cold,", "That checked, mid-vein, the circling race", "Of life-blood in the sharpened face,", "The coming of the snow-storm told.", "The wind blew east; we heard the roar", "Of Ocean on his wintry shore,", "And felt the strong pulse throbbing there", "Beat with low rhythm our inland air.", "Meanwhile we did our nightly chores,", "Brought in the wood from out the doors,", "Littered the stalls, and from the mows", "Raked down the herd's-grass for the cows;", "Heard the horse whinnying for his corn;", "And, sharply clashing horn on horn,", "Impatient down the stanchion rows", "The cattle shake their walnut bows;", "While, peering from his early perch", "Upon the scaffold's pole of birch,", "The cock his crested helmet bent", "And down his querulous challenge sent.", "", "Unwarmed by any sunset light", "The gray day darkened into night,", "A night made hoary with the swarm", "And whirl-dance of the blinding storm,", "As zigzag, wavering to and fro,", "Crossed and recrossed the wingëd snow:", "And ere the early bedtime came", "The white drift piled the window-frame,", "And through the glass the clothes-line posts", "Looked in like tall and sheeted ghosts.", "The old familiar sights of ours", "Took marvellous shapes; strange domes and towers", "Rose up where sty or corn-crib stood,", "Or garden-wall, or belt of wood;", "A smooth white mound the brush-pile showed,", "A fenceless drift what once was road;", "The bridle-post an old man sat", "With loose-flung coat and high cocked hat;", "The well-curb had a Chinese roof;", "And even the long sweep, high aloof,", "In its slant spendor, seemed to tell", "Of Pisa's leaning miracle.", "", "A prompt, decisive man, no breath", "Our father wasted: \"Boys, a path!\"", "Well pleased (for when did farmer boy", "Count such a summons less than joy?)", "Our buskins on our feet we drew;", "With mittened hands, and caps drawn low,", "To guard our necks and ears from snow,", "We cut the solid whiteness through.", "And, where the drift was deepest, made", "A tunnel walled and overlaid", "With dazzling crystal: we had read", "Of rare Aladdin's wondrous cave,", "And to our own his name we gave,", "With many a wish the luck were ours", "To test his lamp's supernal powers.", "We reached the barn with merry din,", "And roused the prisoned brutes within.", "The old horse thrust his long head out,", "And grave with wonder gazed about;", "The cock his lusty greeting said,", "And forth his speckled harem led;", "The oxen lashed their tails, and hooked,", "And mild reproach of hunger looked;", "The hornëd patriarch of the sheep,", "Like Egypt's Amun roused from sleep,", "Shook his sage head with gesture mute,", "And emphasized with stamp of foot.", "", "All day the gusty north-wind bore", "The loosening drift its breath before;", "Low circling round its southern zone,", "The sun through dazzling snow-mist shone.", "No church-bell lent its Christian tone", "To the savage air, no social smoke", "Curled over woods of snow-hung oak.", "A solitude made more intense", "By dreary-voicëd elements,", "The shrieking of the mindless wind,", "The moaning tree-boughs swaying blind,", "And on the glass the unmeaning beat", "Of ghostly finger-tips of sleet.", "Beyond the circle of our hearth", "No welcome sound of toil or mirth", "Unbound the spell, and testified", "Of human life and thought outside.", "We minded that the sharpest ear", "The buried brooklet could not hear,", "The music of whose liquid lip", "Had been to us companionship,", "And, in our lonely life, had grown", "To have an almost human tone.", "", "As night drew on, and, from the crest", "Of wooded knolls that ridged the west,", "The sun, a snow-blown traveller, sank", "From sight beneath the smothering bank,", "We piled, with care, our nightly stack", "Of wood against the chimney-back, --", "The oaken log, green, huge, and thick,", "And on its top the stout back-stick;", "The knotty forestick laid apart,", "And filled between with curious art", "The ragged brush; then, hovering near,", "We watched the first red blaze appear,", "Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam", "On whitewashed wall and sagging beam,", "Until the old, rude-furnished room", "Burst, flower-like, into rosy bloom;", "While radiant with a mimic flame", "Outside the sparkling drift became,", "And through the bare-boughed lilac-tree", "Our own warm hearth seemed blazing free.", "The crane and pendent trammels showed,", "The Turks' heads on the andirons glowed;", "While childish fancy, prompt to tell", "The meaning of the miracle,", "Whispered the old rhyme: \"Under the tree,", "When fire outdoors burns merrily,", "There the witches are making tea.\"", "The moon above the eastern wood", "Shone at its full; the hill-range stood", "Transfigured in the silver flood,", "Its blown snows flashing cold and keen,", "Dead white, save where some sharp ravine", "Took shadow, or the sombre green", "Of hemlocks turned to pitchy black", "Against the whiteness at their back.", "For such a world and such a night", "Most fitting that unwarming light,", "Which only seemd where'er it fell", "To make the coldness visible.", "", "Shut in from all the world without,", "We sat the clean-winged hearth about,", "Content to let the north-wind roar", "In baffled rage at pane and door,", "While the red logs before us beat", "The frost-line back with tropic heat;", "And ever, when a louder blast", "Shook beam and rafter as it passed,", "The merrier up its roaring draught", "The great throat of the chimney laughed;", "The house-dog on his paws outspread", "Laid to the fire his drowsy head,", "The cat's dark silhouette on the wall", "A couchant tiger's seemed to fall;", "And, for the winter fireside meet,", "Between the andirons' straddling feet,", "The mug of cider simmered slow,", "The apples sputtered in a row,", "And, close at hand, the basket stood", "With nuts from brown October's wood.", "", "What matter how the night behaved?", "What matter how the north-wind raved?", "Blow high, blow low, not all its snow", "Could quench our hearth-fire's ruddy glow.", "O Time and Change! -- with hair as gray", "As was my sire's that winter day,", "How strange it seems with so much gone,", "Of life and love, to still live on!", "Ah, brother! only I and thou", "Are left of all that circle now, --", "The dear home faces whereupon", "That fitful firelight paled and shone.", "Henceforward, listen as we will,", "The voices of that hearth are still;", "Look where we may, the wide earth o'er,", "Those lighted faces smile no more.", "We tread the paths their feet have worn,", "We sit beneath their orchard trees,", "We hear, like them, the hum of bees", "And rustle of the bladed corn;", "We turn the pages that they read,", "Their written words we linger o'er.", "But in the sun they cast no shade,", "No voice is heard, no sign is made,", "No step is on the conscious floor!", "Yet love will dream, and Faith will trust", "(Since He who knows our need is just),", "That somehow, somewhere, meet we must.", "Alas for him who never sees", "The stars shine through his cypress-trees!", "Who, hopeless, lays his dead away,", "Nor looks to see the breaking day", "Across the mourful marbles play!", "Who hath not learned, in hours of faith,", "The truth to flesh and sense unknown,", "That Life is ever lord of Death,", "And Love can never lose its own!", "", "We sped the time with stories old,", "Wrought puzzles out, and riddles told,", "Or stammered from our school-book lore", "\"The Chief of Gambia's golden shore.\"", "How often since, when all the land", "Was clay in Slavery's shaping hand,", "As if a far-blown trumpet stirred", "The languorous sin-sick air, I heard:", "\"Does not the voice of reason cry,", "Claim the first right which Nature gave,", "From the red scourge of bondage to fly,", "Nor deign to live a burdened slave!\"", "Our father rode again his ride", "On Memphremagog's wooded side;", "Sat down again to moose and samp", "In trapper's hut and Indian camp;", "Lived o'er the old idyllic ease", "Beneath St. François' hemlock-trees;", "Again for him the moonlight shone", "On Norman cap and bodiced zone;", "Again he heard the violin play", "Which led the village dance away,", "And mingled in its merry whirl", "The grandam and the laughing girl.", "Or, nearer home, our steps he led", "Where Salisbury's level marshes spread", "Mile-wide as flied the laden bee;", "Where merry mowers, hale and strong,", "Swept, scythe on scythe, their swaths along", "The low green prairies of the sea.", "We shared the fishing off Boar's Head,", "And round the rocky Isles of Shoals", "The hake-broil on the drift-wood coals;", "The chowder on the sand-beach made,", "Dipped by the hungry, steaming hot,", "With spoons of clam-shell from the pot.", "We heard the tales of witchcraft old,", "And dream and sign and marvel told", "To sleepy listeners as they lay", "Stretched idly on the salted hay,", "Adrift along the winding shores,", "When favoring breezes deigned to blow", "The square sail of the gundelow", "And idle lay the useless oars.", "", "Our mother, while she turned her wheel", "Or run the new-knit stocking-heel,", "Told how the Indian hordes came down", "At midnight on Concheco town,", "And how her own great-uncle bore", "His cruel scalp-mark to fourscore.", "Recalling, in her fitting phrase,", "So rich and picturesque and free", "(The common unrhymed poetry", "Of simple life and country ways),", "The story of her early days, --", "She made us welcome to her home;", "Old hearths grew wide to give us room;", "We stole with her a frightened look", "At the gray wizard's conjuring-book,", "The fame whereof went far and wide", "Through all the simple country side;", "We heard the hawks at twilight play,", "The boat-horn on Piscataqua,", "The loon's weird laughter far away;", "We fished her little trout-brook, knew", "What flowers in wood and meadow grew,", "What sunny hillsides autumn-brown", "She climbed to shake the ripe nuts down,", "Saw where in sheltered cove and bay,", "The ducks' black squadron anchored lay,", "And heard the wild-geese calling loud", "Beneath the gray November cloud.", "Then, haply, with a look more grave,", "And soberer tone, some tale she gave", "From painful Sewel's ancient tome,", "Beloved in every Quaker home,", "Of faith fire-winged by martyrdom,", "Or Chalkley's Journal, old and quaint, --", "Gentlest of skippers, rare sea-saint! --", "Who, when the dreary calms prevailed,", "And water-butt and bread-cask failed,", "And cruel, hungry eyes pursued", "His portly presence, mad for food,", "With dark hints muttered under breath", "Of casting lots for life or death,", "Offered, if Heaven withheld supplies,", "To be himself the sacrifice.", "Then, suddenly, as if to save", "The good man from his living grave,", "A ripple on the water grew,", "A school of porpoise flashed in view.", "\"Take, eat,\" he said, \"and be content;", "These fishes in my stead are sent", "By Him who gave the tangled ram", "To spare the child of Abraham.\"", "", "Our uncle, innocent of books,", "Was rich in lore of fields and brooks,", "The ancient teachers never dumb", "Of Nature's unhoused lyceum.", "In moons and tides and weather wise,", "He read the clouds as prophecies,", "And foul or fair could well divine,", "By many an occult hint and sign,", "Holding the cunning-warded keys", "To all the woodcraft mysteries;", "Himself to Nature's heart so near", "That all her voices in his ear", "Of beast or bird had meanings clear,", "Like Apollonius of old,", "Who knew the tales the sparrows told,", "Or Hermes, who interpreted", "What the sage cranes of Nilus said;", "A simple, guileless, childlike man,", "Content to live where life began;", "Strong only on his native grounds,", "The little world of sights and sounds", "Whose girdle was the parish bounds,", "Whereof his fondly partial pride", "The common features magnified,", "As Surrey hills to mountains grew", "In White of Selborne's loving view, --", "He told how teal and loon he shot,", "And how the eagle's eggs he got,", "The feats on pond and river done,", "The prodigies of rod and gun;", "Till, warming with the tales he told,", "Forgotten was the outside cold,", "The bitter wind unheeded blew,", "From ripening corn the pigeons flew,", "The partridge drummed i' the wood, the mink", "Went fishing down the river-brink.", "The woodchuck, like a hermit gray,", "Peered from the doorway of his cell;", "The muskrat plied the mason's trade,", "And tier by tier his mud-walls laid;", "And from the shagbark overhead", "The grizzled squirrel dropped his shell.", "", "Next, the dear aunt, whose smile of cheer", "And voice in dreams I see and hear, --", "The sweetest woman ever Fate", "Perverse denied a household mate,", "Who, lonely, homeless, not the less", "Found peace in love's unselfishness,", "And welcome wheresoe'er she went,", "A calm and gracious element,", "Whose presence seemed the sweet income", "And womanly atmosphere of home, --", "Called up her girlhood memories,", "The huskings and the apple-bees,", "The sleigh-rides and the summer sails,", "Weaving through all the poor details", "And homespuun warp of circumstance", "A golden woof-thread of romance.", "For well she kept her genial mood", "And simple faith of maidenhood;", "Before her still a cloud-land lay,", "The mirage loomed across her way;", "The morning dew, that dries so soon", "With others, glistened at her noon;", "Through years of toil and soil and care,", "From glossy tress to thin gray hair,", "All unprofaned she held apart", "The virgin fancies of the heart.", "Be shame to him of woman born", "Who hath for such but thought of scorn.", "", "There, too, our elder sister plied", "Her evening task the stand beside;", "A full, rich nature, free to trust,", "Truthful and almost sternly just,", "Impulsive, earnest, prompt to act,", "And make her generous thought a fact,", "Keeping with many a light disguise", "The secret of self-sacrifice.", "O heart sore-tried! thou hast the best", "That Heaven itself coud give thee, -- rest,", "Rest from all bitter thoughts and things!", "How many a poor one's blessing went", "With thee beneath the low green tent", "Whose curtain never outward swings!", "", "As one who held herself a part", "Of all she saw, and let her heart", "Against the household bosom lean,", "Upon the motley-braided mat", "Our yougest and our dearest sat,", "Lifting her large, sweet, asking eyes,", "Now bathed in the unfading green", "And holy peace of Paradise.", "Oh, looking from some heavenly hill,", "Or from the shade of saintly palms,", "Or silver reach of river calms,", "Do those large eyes behold me still?", "With me one little year ago: --", "The chill weight of the winter snow", "For months upon her grave has lain;", "And now, when summer south-winds blow", "And brier and harebell bloom again,", "I tread the pleasant paths we trod,", "I see the violet-sprinkled sod", "Whereon she leaned, too frail and weak", "The hillside flowers she loved to seek,", "Yet following me where'er I went", "With dark eyes full of love's content.", "The birds are glad; the brier-rose fills", "The air with sweetness; all the hills", "Stretch green to June's unclouded sky;", "But still I wait with ear and eye,", "For something gone which should be nigh,", "A loss in all familiar things,", "In flower that blooms, and bird that sings.", "And yet, dear heart! remembering thee,", "Am I not richer than of old?", "Safe in thy immortality,", "What change can reach the wealth I hold?", "What chnce can mar the pearl and gold", "Thy love hath left in trust with me?", "And while in late life's late afternoon,", "Where cool and long the shadows grow,", "I walk to meet the night that soon", "Shall shape and shadow overflow,", "I cannot feel that thou art far,", "Since near at need the angels are;", "And when the sunset gates unbar,", "Shall I not see thee waiting stand,", "And, white against the evening star,", "The welcome of thy beckoning hand?", "", "Brisk wielder of the birch and rule,", "The master of the local school", "Held at the fire his favored place,", "Its warm glow lit a laughing face", "Fresh-hued and fair, where scarce appeared", "The uncertain prophecy of beard.", "He teased the mitten-blinded cat,", "Played cross-pins on my uncle's hat,", "Sang songs, and told us what befalls", "In classic Dartmouth's college halls.", "Born the wild Northern hills among,", "From whence his yeoman father wrung", "By patient toil subsistence scant,", "Not competence and yet not want,", "He early gained the power to pay", "His cheerful, self-reliant way;", "Could doff at ease his scholar's gown", "To peddle wares from town to town;", "Or through the long vacation's reach", "In lonely lowland districts teach,", "Where all the droll experience found", "At stranger hearths in boarding round,", "The moonlit skater's keen delight,", "The sleigh-drive through the frosty night,", "The rustic party, with its rough", "Accompaniment of blind-man's-buff,", "And whirling-plate, and forfeits paid,", "His winter task a pastime made.", "Happy the snow-locked homes wherein", "He tuned his merry violin,", "Or played the athlete in the barn,", "Or held the good dame's winding-yarn,", "Or mirth-provoking versions told", "Of classic legends rare and old,", "Wherein the scenes of Greece and Rome", "Had all the commonplace of home,", "And little seemed at best the odds", "'Twixt Yankee pedlers and old gods;", "Where Pindus-born Arachthus took", "The guise of any grist-mill brok,", "And dread Olympus at his will", "Became a huckleberry hill.", "", "A careless boy that night he seemed;", "But at his desk he had the look", "And air of one who wisely schemed,", "And hostage from the future took", "In trainëd thought and lore of book.", "Large-brained, clear-eyed, of such as he", "Shall Freedom's young apostles be,", "Who, following in War's bloody trail,", "Shall every lingering wrong assail;", "All chains from limb and spirit strike,", "Uplift the black and white alike;", "Scatter before their swift advance", "The darkness and the ignorance,", "The pride, the lust, the squalid sloth,", "Which nurtured Treason's monstrous growth,", "Made murder pastime, and the hell", "Of prison-torture possible;", "The cruel lie of caste refute,", "Old forms remould, and substitute", "For Slavery's lash the freeman's will,", "For blind routine, wise-handed skill;", "A school-house plant on every hill,", "Stretching in radiate nerve-lines thence", "The quick wires of intelligence;", "Till North and South together brought", "Shall own the same electric thought,", "In peace a common flag salute,", "And, side by side in labor's free", "And unresentful revalry,", "Harvest the fields wherein they fought.", "", "Another guest that winter night", "Flashed back from lustrous eyes the light.", "Unmarked by time, and yet not young,", "The honeyed music of her tongue", "And words of meekness scarcely told", "A nature passionate and bold,", "Strong, self-concentred, spurning guide,", "Its milder features dwarded beside", "Her unbent will's majestic pride.", "She sat among us, at the test,", "A not unfeared, half-welcome guest,", "Rebuking with her cultured phrase", "Our homeliness of words and ways.", "A certain pard-like, treacherous grace", "Swayed the lithe limbs and dropped the lash,", "Lent the white teeth their dazzling flash;", "And under low brows, black with night,", "Rayed out at times a dangerous light;", "The sharp heat-lightnings of her face", "Presaging ill to him whom Fate", "Condemned to share her love or hate.", "A woman tropical, intense", "In thought and act, in soul and sense,", "She blended in a like degree", "The vixen and the devotee,", "Revealing with each freak of feint", "The temper of Petruchio's Kate,", "The raptures of Siena's saint.", "Her tapering hand and rounded wrist", "Had facile power to form a fist;", "The warm, dark languish of her eyes", "Was never safe from wrath's surprise.", "Brows saintly calm and lips devout", "Knew every change of scowl and pout;", "And the sweet voice had notes more high", "And shrill for social battle-cry.", "", "Since then what old cathedral town", "Has missed her pilgrim staff and gown,", "What convent-gate has held its lock", "Against the challenge of her knock!", "Through Smyrna's plague-hushed thoroughfares,", "Up sea-set Malta's rocky stair,", "Gray olive slopes of hills that hem", "Thy tombs and shrines, Jerusalem,", "Or startling on her desert throne", "The crazy Queen of Lebanon", "With claims fantastic as her own,", "Her tireless feet have held their way;", "And still, unrestful. bowed, and gray,", "She watches under Eastern skies,", "With hope each day renewed and fresh,", "The Lord's quick coming in the flesh,", "Whereof she dreams and prophecies!", "", "Where'er her troubled path may be,", "The Lord's sweet pity with her go!", "The outward wayward life we see,", "The hidden springs we may not know.", "Nor is it given us to discern", "What threads the fatal sisters spun,", "Through what ancestral years has run", "The sorrow with the woman born,", "What forged her cruel chain of moods,", "What set her feet in solitudes,", "And held the love within her mute,", "What mingled madness in the blood", "A life-long discord and annoy,", "Water of tears with oil of joy,", "And hid within the folded bud", "Peversities of flower and fruit.", "It is not ours to separate", "The tangled skien of will and fate,", "To show what metes and bounds should stand", "Upon the soul's debatable land,", "And between choice and Providence", "Divide the circle of events;", "But He who knows our frame is just,", "Merciful and compassionate,", "And full of sweet assurances", "And hope for all the language is,", "That He remembereth we are dust!", "", "At last the great logs, crumbling low,", "Sent out a dull and duller glow,", "The bull's-eye watch that hung in view,", "Ticking its weary circuit through,", "Pointed with mutely warning sign", "Its black hand to the hour of nine.", "That sign the pleasant circle. broke:", "My uncle ceased his pipe to smoke,", "Knocked from its bowl the refuse gray", "And laid it tenderly away;", "Then roused himself to safely cover", "The dull red brands with ashes over,", "And while, with care, our mother laid", "The work aside, her steps she stayed", "One moment, seeking to express", "Her grateful sense of happiness", "For food and shelter, warmth and health,", "And love's contentment more than wealth,", "With simple wishes (not the weak,", "Vain prayers which no fulfilment seek,", "But such as warm the generous heart,", "O'er-prompt to do with Heaven its part)", "That none might lack, that bitter night,", "For bread and clothing, warmth and light.", "", "Within our beds awhile we heard", "The wind that round the gables roared,", "With now and then a ruder shock,", "Which made our very bedsteads rock.", "We heard the loosened clapboards tost,", "The board-nails snapping in the frost;", "And on us, through the unplastered wall,", "Felt the light sifted snow-flakes fall.", "But sleep stole on, as sleep will do", "When hearts are light and life is new;", "Faint and more faint the murmurs grew,", "Till in the summer-land of dreams", "They softened to the sound of streams,", "Low stir of leaves, and dip of oars,", "And lapsing waves on quiet shores.", "", "Next morn we wakened with the shout", "Of merry voices high and clear;", "And saw the teamsters drawing near", "To break the drifted highways out.", "Down the long hillside treading slow", "We saw the half-buried oxen go,", "Shaking the snow from heads uptost,", "Their straining nostrils white with frost.", "Before our door the stragglins train", "Drew up, an added team to gain.", "The elders threshed their hands a-cold,", "Passed, with the cider-mug, their jokes", "From lip to lip; the younger folks", "Down the loose snow-banks, wrestling rolled,", "Then toiled again the cavalcade", "O'er windy hill, through clogged ravine,", "And woodland paths that wound between", "Low drooping pine-boughs winter-weighed.", "From every barn a team afoot,", "At every house a new recruit,", "Where, drawn by Nature's subtlest law,", "Haply the watchful young men saw", "Sweet doorway pictures of the curls", "And curious eyes of merry girls,", "Lifting their hands in mock defence", "Against the snow-ball's compliments,", "And reading in each missive tost", "The charm with Eden never lost.", "", "We heard once more the sleigh-bells' sound;", "And, following where the teamsters led,", "The wise old Doctor went his round,", "Just pausing at our door to say,", "In the brief autocratic way", "Of one who, prompt at Duty's call", "Was free to urge her claim on all,", "That some poor neighbor sick abed", "At night our mother's aid would need.", "For, one in generous thought and deed", "What mattered in the sufferer's sight", "The Quaker matron's inward light,", "The Doctor's mail of Calvin's creed?", "All hearts confess the saints elect", "Who, twain in faith, in love agree,", "And melt not in an acid sect", "The Christian pearl of charity!", "", "So days went on: a week had passed", "Since the great world was heard from last.", "The Almanac we studied o'er,", "Read and reread our little store", "Of books and pamphlets, scarce a score;", "One harmless novel, mostly hid", "From younger eyes, a book forbid,", "And poetry (or good or bad,", "A single book was all we had),", "Where Ellwood's meek, drab-skirted Muse,", "A stranger to the heathen Nine,", "Sang, with a somewhat nasal whine,", "The wars of David and the Jews.", "At last the flourndering carrier bore", "The village paper to our door.", "Lo! broadening outward as we read,", "To warmer zones the horizon spread;", "In panoramic length unrolled", "We saw the marvels that it told.", "Before us passed the painted Creeks,", "And daft McGregor on his raids", "In Costa Rica's everglades.", "And up Taygetos winding slow", "Rode Ypsilanti's Mainote Greeks,", "A Turk's head at each saddle-bow!", "Welcome to us its week-old news,", "Its corner for the rustic Muse", "Its monthly gauge of snow and rain,", "Its record, mingling in a breath", "The wedding bell and dirge of death:", "Jest, anecdote, and love-lorn tale,", "The latest culprit sent to jail;", "Its hue and cry of stolen and lost,", "Its vendue sales and goods at cost,", "And traffic calling loud for gain.", "We felt the stir of hall and street,", "The pulse of life that round us beat;", "The chill embargo of the snow", "Was melted in the genial glow;", "Wide swung again our ice-locked door,", "And all the world was ours once more!", "", "Clasp, Angel of the backword look", "And folded wings of ashen gray", "And voice of echoes far away,", "The brazen covers of thy book;", "The weird palimpsest old and vast,", "Wherein thou hid'st the spectral past;", "Where, closely mingling, pale and glow", "The characters of joy and woe;", "The monographs of outlived years,", "Or smile-illumed or dim with tears,", "Green hills of life that slope to death,", "And haunts of home, whose vistaed trees", "Shade off to mournful cypresses,", "With the white amaranths underneath.", "Even while I look, I can but heed", "The restless sands' incessant fall,", "Importunate hours that hours succeed", "Each clamorous with its own sharp need,", "And duty keeping pace with all.", "Shut down and clasp with heavy lids;", "I hear again the voice that bids", "The dreamer leave his dream midway", "For larger hopes and graver fears:", "Life greatens in these later years,", "The century's aloe flowers to-day!", "", "Yet, haply, in some lull of life,", "Some Truce of God which breaks its strife,", "The wordling's eyes shall gather dew,", "Dreaming in throngful city ways", "Of winter joys his boyhood knew;", "And dear and early friends -- the few", "Who yet remain -- shall pause to view", "These Flemish pictures of old days;", "Sit with me by the homestead hearth", "And stretch the hands of memory forth", "To warm them at the wood-fire's blaze!", "And thanks untraced to lips unknown", "Shall greet me like the odors blown", "From unseen meadows newly mown,", "Or lilies floating in some pond,", "Wood-fringed, the wayside gaze beyond;", "The traveller owns the grateful sense", "Of sweetness near, he knows not whence,", "And, pausing takes with forehead bare", "The benediction of the air." ], "linecount": "759" }, { "title": "From Spring Days To Winter (For Music)", "author": "Oscar Wilde", "lines": [ "In the glad springtime when leaves were green,", "O merrily the throstle sings!", "I sought, amid the tangled sheen,", "Love whom mine eyes had never seen,", "O the glad dove has golden wings!", "", "Between the blossoms red and white,", "O merrily the throstle sings!", "My love first came into my sight,", "O perfect vision of delight,", "O the glad dove has golden wings!", "", "The yellow apples glowed like fire,", "O merrily the throstle sings!", "O Love too great for lip or lyre,", "Blown rose of love and of desire,", "O the glad dove has golden wings!", "", "But now with snow the tree is grey,", "Ah, sadly now the throstle sings!", "My love is dead: ah! well-a-day,", "See at her silent feet I lay", "A dove with broken wings!", "Ah, Love! ah, Love! that thou wert slain -", "Fond Dove, fond Dove return again!" ], "linecount": "22" }, { "title": "220. Song—The Winter it is Past", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "THE WINTER it is past, and the summer comes at last", " And the small birds, they sing on ev’ry tree;", "Now ev’ry thing is glad, while I am very sad,", " Since my true love is parted from me.", "", "", "The rose upon the breer, by the waters running clear,", " May have charms for the linnet or the bee;", "Their little loves are blest, and their little hearts at rest,", " But my true love is parted from me." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Winter-Time", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,", "A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;", "Blinks but an hour or two; and then,", "A blood-red orange, sets again.", "", "Before the stars have left the skies,", "At morning in the dark I rise;", "And shivering in my nakedness,", "By the cold candle, bathe and dress.", "", "Close by the jolly fire I sit", "To warm my frozen bones a bit;", "Or with a reindeer-sled, explore", "The colder countries round the door.", "", "When to go out, my nurse doth wrap", "Me in my comforter and cap;", "The cold wind burns my face, and blows", "Its frosty pepper up my nose.", "", "Black are my steps on silver sod;", "Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;", "And tree and house, and hill and lake,", "Are frosted like a wedding cake." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Winter Song", "author": "Wilfred Owen", "lines": [ "The browns, the olives, and the yellows died,", "And were swept up to heaven; where they glowed", "Each dawn and set of sun till Christmastide,", "And when the land lay pale for them, pale-snowed,", "Fell back, and down the snow-drifts flamed and flowed.", "", "From off your face, into the winds of winter,", "The sun-brown and the summer-gold are blowing;", "But they shall gleam with spiritual glinter,", "When paler beauty on your brows falls snowing,", "And through those snows my looks shall be soft-going." ], "linecount": "10" }, { "title": "144. A Winter Night", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "WHEN biting Boreas, fell and dour,", "Sharp shivers thro’ the leafless bow’r;", "When Phoebus gies a short-liv’d glow’r,", " Far south the lift,", "Dim-dark’ning thro’ the flaky show’r,", " Or whirling drift:", "", "", "Ae night the storm the steeples rocked,", "Poor Labour sweet in sleep was locked,", "While burns, wi’ snawy wreaths up-choked,", " Wild-eddying swirl;", "Or, thro’ the mining outlet bocked,", " Down headlong hurl:", "", "", "List’ning the doors an’ winnocks rattle,", "I thought me on the ourie cattle,", "Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle", " O’ winter war,", "And thro’ the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle", " Beneath a scar.", "", "", "Ilk happing bird,—wee, helpless thing!", "That, in the merry months o’ spring,", "Delighted me to hear thee sing,", " What comes o’ thee?", "Whare wilt thou cow’r thy chittering wing,", " An’ close thy e’e?", "", "", "Ev’n you, on murdering errands toil’d,", "Lone from your savage homes exil’d,", "The blood-stain’d roost, and sheep-cote spoil’d", " My heart forgets,", "While pityless the tempest wild", " Sore on you beats!", "", "", "Now Phoebe in her midnight reign,", "Dark-muff’d, view’d the dreary plain;", "Still crowding thoughts, a pensive train,", " Rose in my soul,", "When on my ear this plantive strain,", " Slow, solemn, stole:—", "", "", "“Blow, blow, ye winds, with heavier gust!", "And freeze, thou bitter-biting frost!", "Descend, ye chilly, smothering snows!", "Not all your rage, as now united, shows", " More hard unkindness unrelenting,", " Vengeful malice unrepenting.", "Than heaven-illumin’d Man on brother Man bestows!", "", "", "“See stern Oppression’s iron grip,", " Or mad Ambition’s gory hand,", "Sending, like blood-hounds from the slip,", " Woe, Want, and Murder o’er a land!", " Ev’n in the peaceful rural vale,", " Truth, weeping, tells the mournful tale,", "How pamper’d Luxury, Flatt’ry by her side,", " The parasite empoisoning her ear,", " With all the servile wretches in the rear,", "Looks o’er proud Property, extended wide;", " And eyes the simple, rustic hind,", " Whose toil upholds the glitt’ring show—", " A creature of another kind,", " Some coarser substance, unrefin’d—", "Plac’d for her lordly use thus far, thus vile, below!", "", "", "“Where, where is Love’s fond, tender throe,", " With lordly Honour’s lofty brow,", " The pow’rs you proudly own?", " Is there, beneath Love’s noble name,", " Can harbour, dark, the selfish aim,", " To bless himself alone?", " Mark maiden-innocence a prey", " To love-pretending snares:", " This boasted Honour turns away,", " Shunning soft Pity’s rising sway,", "Regardless of the tears and unavailing pray’rs!", " Perhaps this hour, in Misery’s squalid nest,", " She strains your infant to her joyless breast,", "And with a mother’s fears shrinks at the rocking blast!", "", "", "“Oh ye! who, sunk in beds of down,", " Feel not a want but what yourselves create,", " Think, for a moment, on his wretched fate,", " Whom friends and fortune quite disown!", "Ill-satisfy’d keen nature’s clamorous call,", " Stretch’d on his straw, he lays himself to sleep;", "While through the ragged roof and chinky wall,", " Chill, o’er his slumbers, piles the drifty heap!", " Think on the dungeon’s grim confine,", " Where Guilt and poor Misfortune pine!", " Guilt, erring man, relenting view,", " But shall thy legal rage pursue", " The wretch, already crushed low", " By cruel Fortune’s undeserved blow?", "Affliction’s sons are brothers in distress;", "A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!”", "", "", " I heard nae mair, for Chanticleer", " Shook off the pouthery snaw,", " And hail’d the morning with a cheer,", " A cottage-rousing craw.", " But deep this truth impress’d my mind—", " Thro’ all His works abroad,", " The heart benevolent and kind", " The most resembles God." ], "linecount": "96" }, { "title": "15. Winter: A Dirge", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "THE WINTRY west extends his blast,", " And hail and rain does blaw;", "Or the stormy north sends driving forth", " The blinding sleet and snaw:", "While, tumbling brown, the burn comes down,", " And roars frae bank to brae;", "And bird and beast in covert rest,", " And pass the heartless day.", "", "", "“The sweeping blast, the sky o’ercast,”", " The joyless winter day", "Let others fear, to me more dear", " Than all the pride of May:", "The tempest’s howl, it soothes my soul,", " My griefs it seems to join;", "The leafless trees my fancy please,", " Their fate resembles mine!", "", "", "Thou Power Supreme, whose mighty scheme", " These woes of mine fulfil,", "Here firm I rest; they must be best,", " Because they are Thy will!", "Then all I want—O do Thou grant", " This one request of mine!—", "Since to enjoy Thou dost deny,", " Assist me to resign." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "The Task: Book VI, The Winter Walk at Noon (excerpts)", "author": "William Cowper", "lines": [ "Thus heav'nward all things tend. For all were once", "Perfect, and all must be at length restor'd.", "So God has greatly purpos'd; who would else", "In his dishonour'd works himself endure", "Dishonour, and be wrong'd without redress.", "Haste then, and wheel away a shatter'd world,", "Ye slow-revolving seasons! We would see", "(A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet)", "A world that does not dread and hate his laws,", "And suffer for its crime: would learn how fair", "The creature is that God pronounces good,", "How pleasant in itself what pleases him.", "Here ev'ry drop of honey hides a sting;", "Worms wind themselves into our sweetest flow'rs,", "And ev'n the joy, that haply some poor heart", "Derives from heav'n, pure as the fountain is,", "Is sully'd in the stream; taking a taint", "From touch of human lips, at best impure.", "Oh for a world in principle as chaste", "As this is gross and selfish! over which", "Custom and prejudice shall bear no sway,", "That govern all things here, should'ring aside", "The meek and modest truth, and forcing her", "To seek a refuge from the tongue of strife", "In nooks obscure, far from the ways of men;", "Where violence shall never lift the sword,", "Nor cunning justify the proud man's wrong,", "Leaving the poor no remedy but tears;", "Where he that fills an office shall esteem", "The occasion it presents of doing good", "More than the perquisite; where law shall speak", "Seldom, and never but as wisdom prompts,", "And equity; not jealous more to guard", "A worthless form, than to decide aright;", "Where fashion shall not sanctify abuse,", "Nor smooth good-breeding (supplemental grace)", "With lean performance ape the work of love....", "", "", "He is the happy man, whose life ev'n now", "Shows somewhat of that happier life to come:", "Who, doom'd to an obscure but tranquil state,", "Is pleas'd with it, and, were he free to choose,", "Would make his fate his choice; whom peace, the fruit", "Of virtue, and whom virtue, fruit of faith,", "Prepare for happiness; bespeak him one", "Content indeed to sojourn while he must", "Below the skies, but having there his home.", "The world o'eriooks him in her busy search", "Of objects more illustrious in her view;", "And occupied as earnestly as she,", "Though more sublimely, he o'erlooks the world.", "She scorns his pleasures, for she knows them not;", "He seeks not hers, for he has prov'd them vain.", "He cannot skim the ground like summer birds", "Pursuing gilded flies, and such he deems", "Her honours, her emoluments, her joys.", "Therefore in contemplation is his bliss,", "Whose pow'r is such, that whom she lifts from earth", "She makes familiar with a heav'n unseen,", "And shows him glories yet to be reveal'd....", "", "", "So life glides smoothly and by stealth away,", "More golden than that age of fabled gold", "Renown'd in ancient song; not vex'd with care", "Or stain'd with guilt, beneficent, approv'd", "Of God and man, and peaceful in its end.", "So glide my life away! and so at last", "My share of duties decently fulfill'd,", "May some disease, not tardy to perform", "Its destin'd office, yet with gentle stroke,", "Dismiss me weary to a safe retreat,", "Beneath a turf that I have often trod.", "It shall not grieve me, then, that once, when call'd", "To dress a sofa with the flow'rs of verse,", "I play'd awhile, obedient to the fair,", "With that light task; but soon, to please her more,", "Whom flow'rs alone I knew would little please,", "Let fall th' unfinish'd wreath, and rov'd for fruit;", "Rov'd far, and gather'd much: some harsh, 'tis true,", "Pick'd from the thorns and briars of reproof,", "But wholesome, well digested; grateful some", "To palates that can taste immortal truth,", "Insipid else, and sure to be despis'd.", "But all is in his hand whose praise I seek.", "In vain the poet sings, and the world hears,", "If he regard not, though divine the theme.", "'Tis not in artful measures, in the chime", "And idle tinkling of a minstrel's lyre,", "To charm his ear whose eye is on the heart;", "Whose frown can disappoint the proudest strain,", "Whose approbation--prosper ev'n mine." ], "linecount": "89" }, { "title": "To a Locomotive in Winter.", "author": "Walt Whitman", "lines": [ "THEE for my recitative!", "Thee in the driving storm, even as now—the snow—the winter-day declining;", "Thee in thy panoply, thy measured dual throbbing, and thy beat convulsive;", "Thy black cylindric body, golden brass, and silvery steel;", "Thy ponderous side-bars, parallel and connecting rods, gyrating, shuttling at thy sides;", "Thy metrical, now swelling pant and roar—now tapering in the distance;", "Thy great protruding head-light, fix’d in front;", "Thy long, pale, floating vapor-pennants, tinged with delicate purple;", "The dense and murky clouds out-belching from thy smoke-stack;", "Thy knitted frame—thy springs and valves—the tremulous twinkle of thy wheels;", "Thy train of cars behind, obedient, merrily-following,", "Through gale or calm, now swift, now slack, yet steadily careering:", "Type of the modern! emblem of motion and power! pulse of the continent!", "For once, come serve the Muse, and merge in verse, even as here I see thee,", "With storm, and buffeting gusts of wind, and falling snow;", "By day, thy warning, ringing bell to sound its notes,", "By night, thy silent signal lamps to swing.", "", "Fierce-throated beauty!", "Roll through my chant, with all thy lawless music! thy swinging lamps at night;", "Thy piercing, madly-whistled laughter! thy echoes, rumbling like an earthquake, rousing", " all!", "Law of thyself complete, thine own track firmly holding;", "(No sweetness debonair of tearful harp or glib piano thine,)", "Thy trills of shrieks by rocks and hills return’d,", "Launch’d o’er the prairies wide—across the lakes,", "To the free skies, unpent, and glad, and strong." ], "linecount": "26" }, { "title": "488. Song—The Winter of Life", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "BUT lately seen in gladsome green,", " The woods rejoic’d the day,", "Thro’ gentle showers, the laughing flowers", " In double pride were gay:", "But now our joys are fled", " On winter blasts awa;", "Yet maiden May, in rich array,", " Again shall bring them a’.", "", "", "But my white pow, nae kindly thowe", " Shall melt the snaws of Age;", "My trunk of eild, but buss or beild,", " Sinks in Time’s wintry rage.", "Oh, Age has weary days,", " And nights o’ sleepless pain:", "Thou golden time, o’ Youthfu’ prime,", " Why comes thou not again!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "I WHo All The Winter Through", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "I WHO all the winter through", "Cherished other loves than you,", "And kept hands with hoary policy in marriage-bed and pew;", "Now I know the false and true,", "For the earnest sun looks through,", "And my old love comes to meet me in the dawning and the dew.", "", "Now the hedged meads renew", "Rustic odour, smiling hue,", "And the clean air shines and tinkles as the world goes wheeling through;", "And my heart springs up anew,", "Bright and confident and true,", "And my old love comes to meet me in the dawning and the dew." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Picture-Books in Winter", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "Summer fading, winter comes--", "Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs,", "Window robins, winter rooks,", "And the picture story-books.", "", "Water now is turned to stone", "Nurse and I can walk upon;", "Still we find the flowing brooks", "In the picture story-books.", "", "All the pretty things put by,", "Wait upon the children's eye,", "Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks,", "In the picture story-books.", "", "We may see how all things are", "Seas and cities, near and far,", "And the flying fairies' looks,", "In the picture story-books.", "", "How am I to sing your praise,", "Happy chimney-corner days,", "Sitting safe in nursery nooks,", "Reading picture story-books?" ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Winter", "author": "Robert Southey", "lines": [ "A wrinkled crabbed man they picture thee,", "Old Winter, with a rugged beard as grey", "As the long moss upon the apple-tree;", "Blue-lipt, an icedrop at thy sharp blue nose,", "Close muffled up, and on thy dreary way", "Plodding alone through sleet and drifting snows.", "They should have drawn thee by the high-heapt hearth,", "Old Winter! seated in thy great armed chair,", "Watching the children at their Christmas mirth;", "Or circled by them as thy lips declare", "Some merry jest, or tale of murder dire,", "Or troubled spirit that disturbs the night,", "Pausing at times to rouse the mouldering fire,", "Or taste the old October brown and bright." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Ode to Winter", "author": "Thomas Campbell", "lines": [ "When first the fiery-mantled sun", "His heavenly race begun to run;", "Round the earth and ocean blue,", "His children four the Seasons flew.", "First, in green apparel dancing,", "The young Spring smiled with angel grace;", "Rosy summer next advancing,", "Rushed into her sire's embrace:-", "Her blue-haired sire, who bade her keep", "For ever nearest to his smile,", "On Calpe's olive-shaded steep,", "On India's citron-covered isles:", "More remote and buxom-brown,", "The Queen of vintage bowed before his throne,", "A rich pomegranate gemmed her gown,", "A ripe sheaf bound her zone.", "But howling Winter fled afar,", "To hills that prop the polar star,", "And lives on deer-borne car to ride", "With barren darkness at his side,", "Round the shore where loud Lofoden", "Whirls to death the roaring whale,", "Round the hall where runic Odin", "Howls his war-song to the gale;", "Save when adown the ravaged globe", "He travels on his native storm,", "Deflowering Nature's grassy robe,", "And trampling on her faded form:-", "Till light's returning lord assume", "The shaft the drives him to his polar field,", "Of power to pierce his raven plume", "And crystal-covered shield.", "Oh, sire of storms! whose savage ear", "The Lapland drum delights to hear,", "When frenzy with her blood-shot eye", "Implores thy dreadful deity,", "Archangel! power of desolation!", "Fast descending as thou art,", "Say, hath mortal invocation", "Spells to touch thy stony heart?", "Then, sullen Winter, hear my prayer,", "And gently rule the ruined year;", "Nor chill the wanders bosom bare,", "Nor freeze the wretch's falling tear;-", "To shuddering Want's unmantled bed", "Thy horror-breathing agues cease to lead,", "And gently on the orphan head", "Of innocence descend.-", "But chiefly spare, O king of clouds!", "The sailor on his airy shrouds;", "When wrecks and beacons strew the steep,", "And specters walk along the deep.", "Milder yet thy snowy breezes", "Pour on yonder tented shores,", "Where the Rhine's broad billow freezes,", "Or the Dark-brown Danube roars.", "Oh, winds of winter! List ye there", "To many a deep and dying groan;", "Or start, ye demons of the midnight air,", "At shrieks and thunders louder than your own.", "Alas! Even unhallowed breath", "May spare the victim fallen low;", "But man will ask no truce of death,-", "No bounds to human woe." ], "linecount": "64" }, { "title": "Zummer An' Winter", "author": "William Barnes", "lines": [ "When I led by zummer streams", "The pride o' Lea, as naighbours thought her,", "While the zun, wi' evenen beams,", "Did cast our sheades athirt the water;", "Winds a-blowen,", "Streams a-flowen,", "Skies a-glowen,", "Tokens ov my jay zoo fleeten,", "Heightened it, that happy meeten.", "", "Then, when maid an' man took pleaces,", "Gay in winter's Chris'mas dances,", "Showen in their merry feaces", "Kindly smiles an' glisnen glances;", "Stars a-winken,", "Day a-shrinken,", "Sheades a-zinken,", "Brought anew the happy meeten,", "That did meake the night too fleeten." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "The Task: Book V, The Winter Morning Walk (excerpts)", "author": "William Cowper", "lines": [ "'Tis morning; and the sun, with ruddy orb", "Ascending, fires th' horizon: while the clouds,", "That crowd away before the driving wind,", "More ardent as the disk emerges more,", "Resemble most some city in a blaze,", "Seen through the leafless wood. His slanting ray", "Slides ineffectual down the snowy vale,", "And, tinging all with his own rosy hue,", "From ev'ry herb and ev'ry spiry blade", "Stretches a length of shadow o'er the field.", "Mine, spindling into longitude immense,", "In spite of gravity, and sage remark", "That I myself am but a fleeting shade,", "Provokes me to a smile. With eye askance", "I view the muscular proportion'd limb", "Transform'd to a lean shank. The shapeless pair,", "As they design'd to mock me, at my side", "Take step for step; and, as I near approach", "The cottage, walk along the plaster'd wall,", "Prepost'rous sight! the legs without the man.", "The verdure of the plain lies buried deep", "Beneath the dazzling deluge; and the bents,", "And coarser grass, upspearing o'er the rest,", "Of late unsightly and unseen, now shine", "Conspicuous, and, in bright apparel clad", "And fledg'd with icy feathers, nod superb.", "The cattle mourn in corners where the fence", "Screens them, and seem half petrified to sleep", "In unrecumbent sadness. There they wait", "Their wonted fodder; not like hung'ring man,", "Fretful if unsupply'd; but silent, meek,", "And patient of the slow-pac'd swain's delay.", "He from the stack carves out th' accustom'd load,", "Deep-plunging, and again deep-plunging oft,", "His broad keen knife into the solid mass:", "Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands,", "With such undeviating and even force", "He severs it away: no needless care,", "Lest storms should overset the leaning pile", "Deciduous, or its own unbalanc'd weight....", "", "", "'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower", "Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume,", "And we are weeds without it. All constraint,", "Except what wisdom lays on evil men,", "Is evil; hurts the faculties, impedes", "Their progress in the road of science; blinds", "The eyesight of discovery, and begets,", "In those that suffer it, a sordid mind", "Bestial, a meagre intellect, unfit", "To be the tenant of man's noble form.", "Thee therefore, still, blameworthy as thou art,", "With all thy loss of empire, and though squeez'd", "By public exigence till annual food", "Fails for the craving hunger of the state,", "Thee I account still happy, and the chief", "Among the nations, seeing thou art free,", "My native nook of earth! . . ....", "", "", "But there is yet a liberty unsung", "By poets, and by senators unprais'd,", "Which monarchs cannot grant, nor all the pow'rs", "Of earth and hell confederate take away;", "A liberty which persecution, fraud,", "Oppression, prisons, have no pow'r to bind;", "Which whoso tastes can be enslav'd no more.", "'Tis liberty of heart, deriv'd from Heav'n,", "Bought with his blood who gave it to mankind,", "And seal'd with the same token. It is held", "By charter, and that charter sanction'd sure", "By th' unimpeachable and awful oath", "And promise of a God. His other gifts", "All bear the royal stamp that speaks them his,", "And are august, but this transcends them all." ], "linecount": "72" }, { "title": "The Task: Book IV, The Winter Evening (excerpts)", "author": "William Cowper", "lines": [ "Hark! 'tis the twanging horn! O'er yonder bridge,", "That with its wearisome but needful length", "Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon", "Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright,", "He comes, the herald of a noisy world,", "With spatter'd boots, strapp'd waist, and frozen locks;", "News from all nations lumb'ring at his back.", "True to his charge, the close-pack'd load behind,", "Yet careless what he brings, his one concern", "Is to conduct it to the destin'd inn:", "And, having dropp'd th' expected bag, pass on.", "He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch,", "Cold and yet cheerful: messenger of grief", "Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some;", "To him indiff'rent whether grief or joy.", "Houses in ashes, and the fall of stocks,", "Births, deaths, and marriages, epistles wet", "With tears that trickled down the writer's cheeks", "Fast as the periods from his fluent quill,", "Or charg'd with am'rous sighs of absent swains,", "Or nymphs responsive, equally affect", "His horse and him, unconscious of them all.", "But oh th' important budget! usher'd in", "With such heart-shaking music, who can say", "What are its tidings? have our troops awak'd?", "Or do they still, as if with opium drugg'd,", "Snore to the murmurs of th' Atlantic wave?", "Is India free? and does she wear her plum'd", "And jewell'd turban with a smile of peace,", "Or do we grind her still? The grand debate,", "The popular harangue, the tart reply,", "The logic, and the wisdom, and the wit,", "And the loud laugh--I long to know them all;", "I burn to set th' imprison'd wranglers free,", "And give them voice and utt'rance once again.", "Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,", "Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,", "And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn", "Throws up a steamy column, and the cups,", "That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,", "So let us welcome peaceful ev'ning in.", "Not such his ev'ning, who with shining face", "Sweats in the crowded theatre, and, squeez'd", "And bor'd with elbow-points through both his sides,", "Out-scolds the ranting actor on the stage:", "Nor his, who patient stands till his feet throb,", "And his head thumps, to feed upon the breath", "Of patriots, bursting with heroic rage,", "Or placemen, all tranquility and smiles.", "This folio of four pages, happy work!", "Which not ev'n critics criticise; that holds", "Inquisitive attention, while I read,", "Fast bound in chains of silence, which the fair,", "Though eloquent themselves, yet fear to break;", "What is it, but a map of busy life,", "Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?...", "", "", "Oh winter, ruler of th' inverted year,", "Thy scatter'd hair with sleet like ashes fill'd,", "Thy breath congeal'd upon thy lips, thy cheeks", "Fring'd with a beard made white with other snows", "Than those of age, thy forehead wrapp'd in clouds,", "A leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throne", "A sliding car, indebted to no wheels,", "But urg'd by storms along its slipp'ry way,", "I love thee, all unlovely as thou seem'st,", "And dreaded as thou art! Thou hold'st the sun", "A pris'ner in the yet undawning east,", "Short'ning his journey between morn and noon,", "And hurrying him, impatient of his stay,", "Down to the rosy west; but kindly still", "Compensating his loss with added hours", "Of social converse and instructive ease,", "And gath'ring, at short notice, in one group", "The family dispers'd, and fixing thought,", "Not less dispers'd by day-light and its cares.", "I crown thee king of intimate delights,", "Fire-side enjoyments, home-born happiness,", "And all the comforts that the lowly roof", "Of undisturb'd retirement, and the hours", "Of long uninterrupted ev'ning, know.", "No rattling wheels stop short before these gates;", "No powder'd pert proficient in the art", "Of sounding an alarm, assaults these doors", "Till the street rings; no stationary steeds", "Cough their own knell, while, heedless of the sound,", "The silent circle fan themselves, and quake:", "But here the needle plies its busy task,", "The pattern grows, the well-depicted flow'r,", "Wrought patiently into the snowy lawn,", "Unfolds its bosom; buds, and leaves, and sprigs,", "And curling tendrils, gracefully dispos'd,", "Follow the nimble finger of the fair;", "A wreath that cannot fade, or flow'rs that blow", "With most success when all besides decay.", "The poet's or historian's page, by one", "Made vocal for th' amusement of the rest;", "The sprightly lyre, whose treasure of sweet sounds", "The touch from many a trembling chord shakes out;", "And the clear voice symphonious, yet distinct,", "And in the charming strife triumphant still;", "Beguile the night, and set a keener edge", "On female industry: the threaded steel", "Flies swiftly, and, unfelt, the task proceeds.", "The volume clos'd, the customary rites", "Of the last meal commence. A Roman meal;", "Such as the mistress of the world once found", "Delicious, when her patriots of high note,", "Perhaps by moonlight, at their humble doors,", "And under an old oak's domestic shade,", "Enjoy'd--spare feast!--a radish and an egg!", "Discourse ensues, not trivial, yet not dull,", "Nor such as with a frown forbids the play", "Of fancy, or proscribes the sound of mirth:", "Nor do we madly, like an impious world,", "Who deem religion frenzy, and the God", "That made them an intruder on their joys,", "Start at his awful name, or deem his praise", "A jarring note. Themes of a graver tone,", "Exciting oft our gratitude and love,", "While we retrace with mem'ry's pointing wand,", "That calls the past to our exact review,", "The dangers we have 'scaped, the broken snare,", "The disappointed foe, deliv'rance found", "Unlook'd for, life preserv'd and peace restor'd--", "Fruits of omnipotent eternal love.", "Oh ev'nings worthy of the gods! exclaim'd", "The Sabine bard. Oh ev'nings, I reply,", "More to be priz'd and coveted than yours,", "As more illumin'd, and with nobler truths.", "That I, and mine, and those we love, enjoy...." ], "linecount": "130" }, { "title": "Spring and Winter ii", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "WHEN icicles hang by the wall,", " And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,", "And Tom bears logs into the hall,", " And milk comes frozen home in pail,", "When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul,", "Then nightly sings the staring owl,", " To-whit!", "To-who!--a merry note,", "While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.", "", "When all aloud the wind doe blow,", " And coughing drowns the parson's saw,", "And birds sit brooding in the snow,", " And Marian's nose looks red and raw,", "When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,", "Then nightly sings the staring owl,", " To-whit!", "To-who!--a merry note,", "While greasy Joan doth keel the pot." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Winter", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "When icicles hang by the wall", "And Dick the shepherd blows his nail", "And Tom bears logs into the hall,", "And milk comes frozen home in pail,", "When Blood is nipped and ways be foul,", "Then nightly sings the staring owl,", "Tu-who;", "Tu-whit, tu-who: a merry note,", "While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.", "", "When all aloud the wind doth blow,", "And coughing drowns the parson's saw,", "And birds sit brooding in the snow,", "And Marian's nose looks red and raw", "When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,", "Then nightly sings the staring owl,", "Tu-who;", "Tu-whit, tu-who: a merry note,", "While greasy Joan doth keel the pot." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Spring and Winter i", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "WHEN daisies pied and violets blue,", " And lady-smocks all silver-white,", "And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue", " Do paint the meadows with delight,", "The cuckoo then, on every tree,", "Mocks married men; for thus sings he,", " Cuckoo!", "Cuckoo, cuckoo!--O word of fear,", "Unpleasing to a married ear!", "", "When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,", " And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks,", "When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,", " And maidens bleach their summer smocks", "The cuckoo then, on every tree,", "Mocks married men; for thus sings he,", " Cuckoo!", "Cuckoo, cuckoo!--O word of fear,", "Unpleasing to a married ear!" ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "Blow, blow, thou winter wind", "Thou art not so unkind", "As man's ingratitude;", "Thy tooth is not so keen,", "Because thou art not seen,", "Although thy breath be rude.", "", "Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:", "Most freindship if feigning, most loving mere folly:", "Then heigh-ho, the holly!", "This life is most jolly.", "", "Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky,", "That does not bite so nigh", "As benefits forgot:", "Though thou the waters warp,", "Thy sting is not so sharp", "As a friend remembered not.", "Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:", "Most freindship if feigning, most loving mere folly:", "Then heigh-ho, the holly!", "This life is most jolly." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "How like a winter hath my absence been", "From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!", "What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!", "What old December's bareness everywhere!", "And yet this time removed was summer's time;", "The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,", "Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,", "Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:", "Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me", "But hope of orphans, and unfather'd fruit;", "For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,", "And, thou away, the very birds are mute:", " Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer,", " That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Sonnet 6: Then let not winter's ragged hand deface", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "Then let not winter's ragged hand deface,", "In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill'd:", "Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place", "With beauty's treasure ere it be self-kill'd.", "That use is not forbidden usury,", "Which happies those that pay the willing loan;", "That's for thy self to breed another thee,", "Or ten times happier, be it ten for one;", "Ten times thy self were happier than thou art,", "If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee:", "Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,", "Leaving thee living in posterity?", " Be not self-will'd, for thou art much too fair", " To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Sonnet 2: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,", "And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,", "Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now,", "Will be a tatter'd weed of small worth held:", "Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies,", "Where all the treasure of thy lusty days;", "To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes,", "Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.", "How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use,", "If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine", "Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,'", "Proving his beauty by succession thine!", " This were to be new made when thou art old,", " And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Emmonsail's Heath in Winter", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "I love to see the old heath's withered brake", "Mingle its crimpled leaves with furze and ling,", "While the old heron from the lonely lake", "Starts slow and flaps his melancholy wing,", "And oddling crow in idle motions swing", "On the half rotten ashtree's topmost twig,", "Beside whose trunk the gipsy makes his bed.", "Up flies the bouncing woodcock from the brig", "Where a black quagmire quakes beneath the tread,", "The fieldfares chatter in the whistling thorn", "And for the awe round fields and closen rove,", "And coy bumbarrels twenty in a drove", "Flit down the hedgerows in the frozen plain", "And hang on little twigs and start again." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Winter Walk", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "The holly bush, a sober lump of green,", "Shines through the leafless shrubs all brown and grey,", "And smiles at winter be it eer so keen", "With all the leafy luxury of May.", "And O it is delicious, when the day", "In winter's loaded garment keenly blows", "And turns her back on sudden falling snows,", "To go where gravel pathways creep between", "Arches of evergreen that scarce let through", "A single feather of the driving storm;", "And in the bitterest day that ever blew", "The walk will find some places still and warm", "Where dead leaves rustle sweet and give alarm", "To little birds that flirt and start away." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Signs of Winter", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "The cat runs races with her tail. The dog", "Leaps oer the orchard hedge and knarls the grass.", "The swine run round and grunt and play with straw,", "Snatching out hasty mouthfuls from the stack.", "Sudden upon the elmtree tops the crow", "Unceremonious visit pays and croaks,", "Then swops away. From mossy barn the owl", "Bobs hasty out--wheels round and, scared as soon,", "As hastily retires. The ducks grow wild", "And from the muddy pond fly up and wheel", "A circle round the village and soon, tired,", "Plunge in the pond again. The maids in haste", "Snatch from the orchard hedge the mizzled clothes", "And laughing hurry in to keep them dry." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The Winter's Come", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "Sweet chestnuts brown like soling leather turn;", " The larch trees, like the colour of the Sun;", "That paled sky in the Autumn seemed to burn,", " What a strange scene before us now does run--", "Red, brown, and yellow, russet, black, and dun;", " White thorn, wild cherry, and the poplar bare;", "The sycamore all withered in the sun.", " No leaves are now upon the birch tree there:", " All now is stript to the cold wintry air.", "", "See, not one tree but what has lost its leaves--", " And yet the landscape wears a pleasing hue.", "The winter chill on his cold bed receives", " Foliage which once hung oer the waters blue.", "Naked and bare the leafless trees repose.", " Blue-headed titmouse now seeks maggots rare,", "Sluggish and dull the leaf-strewn river flows;", " That is not green, which was so through the year", " Dark chill November draweth to a close.", "", "Tis Winter, and I love to read indoors,", " When the Moon hangs her crescent up on high;", "While on the window shutters the wind roars,", " And storms like furies pass remorseless by.", "How pleasant on a feather bed to lie,", " Or, sitting by the fire, in fancy soar", "With Dante or with Milton to regions high,", " Or read fresh volumes we've not seen before,", " Or oer old Burton's Melancholy pore." ], "linecount": "27" }, { "title": "Summer and Winter", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "It was a bright and cheerful afternoon,", "Towards the end of the sunny month of June,", "When the north wind congregates in crowds", "The floating mountains of the silver clouds", "From the horizon--and the stainless sky", "Opens beyond them like eternity.", "All things rejoiced beneath the sun; the weeds,", "The river, and the corn-fields, and the reeds;", "The willow leaves that glanced in the light breeze,", "And the firm foliage of the larger trees.", "", "It was a winter such as when birds die", "In the deep forests; and the fishes lie", "Stiffened in the translucent ice, which makes", "Even the mud and slime of the warm lakes", "A wrinkled clod as hard as brick; and when,", "Among their children, comfortable men", "Gather about great fires, and yet feel cold:", "Alas, then, for the homeless beggar old!" ], "linecount": "18" } ]