WAS there last night a snowstorm? So thick the orchards stand, With drift on drift of blossom-flakes Whitening all the land. Or have the waves of life that swelled The green buds, day by day, Broken at once in clinging foam And scattered odor-spray? The winds come drowsy with the breath Of cherry and of pear, Sighing their perfume-laden wings No more of sweet can bear. Over the garden-gateway That parts the tufted hedge, Rimming the idly twinkling bay, Sleeps the blue mountains' edge. Yon fleece of clouds in heaven, So delicate and fair, Seems a whole league of orchard-bloom Sailing along the air. Oh, loveliness of nature! Oh, sordid minds of men! Without, a world of bloom and balm -- A sour, sad soul within. O winds that sweep the orchard With Orient spices sweet, Why bring ye with that desolate sound The dead leaves to my feet? Ah, sweeter were the fragrance That I to-day have found, If last year's crumbled leaves of love Were buried under ground; And fairer were the shadowed troops That fleck the distant hill, If shades of clouds that will not pass Dimmed not my memory still. Better than all the beauty Which cloud or blossom shows Is the blue sky that arches all With measureless repose. And better than the bright blue sky, To know that far away Sweep all the silent host of stars Behind the veil of day. And best to feel that there and here, About us and above, Move on the purposes of God In justice and in love. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CRUCIFIXION TO THE WORLD BY THE CROSS OF CHRIST by ISAAC WATTS CASSANDRA SOUTHWICK; 1658 by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER WRITTEN ON THE DEATH OF OUR BELOVED GENERAL STONEWALL JACKSON by CAROLINE AUGUSTA BALL EACH FLEETING DAY by CHARLOTTE LOUISE BERTLESEN THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 49. FAREWELL TO JULIET (11) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT A SPRAY OF HONEYSUCKLE by MARY EMILY NEELEY BRADLEY |