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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MIDWINTER, by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE Poet's Biography First Line: The speckled sky is dim with snow Last Line: Transfigured by their purity. | |||
THE speckled sky is dim with snow, The light flakes falter and fall slow; Athwart the hill-top, rapt and pale, Silently drops a silvery veil; And all the valley is shut in By flickering curtains gray and thin. But cheerily the chickadee Singeth to me on fence and tree; The snow sails round him as he sings, White as the down of angels' wings. I watch the slow flakes as they fall On bank and brier and broken wall; Over the orchard, waste and brown, All noiselessly they settle down, Tipping the apple-boughs, and each Light quivering twig of plum and peach. On turf and curb and bower-roof The snow-storm spreads its ivory woof; It paves with pearl the garden-walk; And lovingly round tattered stalk And shivering stem its magic weaves A mantle fair as lily-leaves. The hooded beehive, small and low, Stands like a maiden in the snow; And the old door-slab is half hid Under an alabaster lid. All day it snows: the sheeted post Gleams in the dimness like a ghost; All day the blasted oak has stood A muffled wizard of the wood; Garland and airy cap adorn The sumach and the wayside thorn, And clustering spangles lodge and shine In the dark tresses of the pine. The ragged bramble, dwarfed and old, Shrinks like a beggar in the cold; In surplice white the cedar stands, And blesses him with priestly hands. Still cheerily the chickadee Singeth to me on fence and tree: But in my inmost ear is heard The music of a holier bird; And heavenly thoughts as soft and white As snow-flakes, on my soul alight, Clothing with love my lonely heart, Healing with peace each bruised part, Till all my being seems to be Transfigured by their purity. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOROTHY IN THE GARRET by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE FARM-YARD SONG by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE THE OLD LOBSTERMAN by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE THE VAGABONDS by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE DARIUS GREEN AND HIS FLYING MACHINE by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE MENOTOMY LAKE (SPY POND) by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE MIDSUMMER by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE THE OLD BURYING GROUND by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN; PROFILE NOTCH, FRANCONIA by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE THE STORY OF THE BAREFOOT BOY by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE |
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