Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FROST SPIRIT, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FROST SPIRIT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: He comes, he comes, the frost spirit
Last Line: Sounding wing goes by!
Subject(s): Frost


HE comes, -- he comes, -- the Frost Spirit comes! You may
trace his footsteps now
On the naked woods and the blasted fields and the brown
hill's withered brow.
He has smitten the leaves of the gray old trees where their
pleasant green came forth,
And the winds, which follow wherever he goes, have shaken
them down to earth.

He comes, -- he comes, -- the Frost Spirit comes! from the
frozen Labrador,
From the icy bridge of the Northern seas, which the white
bear wanders o'er,
Where the fisherman's sail is stiff with ice, and the
luckless forms below
In the sunless cold of the lingering night into marble statues grow!

He comes, -- he comes, -- the Frost Spirit comes! on the
rushing Northern blast,
And the dark Norwegian pines have bowed as his fearful
breath went past.
With an unscorched wing he has hurried on, where the fires
of Hecla glow
On the darkly beautiful sky above and the ancient ice below.

He comes, -- he comes, -- the Frost Spirit comes! and the
quiet lake shall feel
The torpid touch of his glazing breath, and ring to the skater's heel;
And the streams which danced on the broken rocks, or sang
to the leaning grass,
Shall bow again to their winter chain, and in mournful silence pass.

He comes, -- he comes, -- the Frost Spirit comes! Let us
meet him as we may,
And turn with the light of the parlor-fire his evil power away;
And gather closer the circle round, when that firelight dances high,
And laugh at the shriek of the baffled Fiend as his
sounding wing goes by!





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