Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SNOW IN APRIL, by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD Poet's Biography First Line: An april snow!- 'tis as the head of youth Last Line: "long shall I ""pause till it come back to me." Subject(s): Aging; April; Snow | ||||||||
" My head is gray, but not with years." AN April snow! -- 't is as the head of youth Just freshening in the spring-time of its hopes, And glancing to the sunbeam the bright eye, And to the first rose pouting its rich lip, Or turning to the morning's blush its cheek, And to the morning's music its young ear -- Dimpling its chin, as April's rain-drops fall On the brook's eddy, --'t is as if such head Of smile, and bloom, and dimple, were adorned With the white locks of age, that venerably Spread monitorial sadness -- premature; Weaving the bleached and silvery threads of time, On the bright texture of a glad boy's eyelash. So move we on. I've seen the eye of age Bright to the last as that of Moses was, -- I've marked the foot-falls of a man, whose years Were more than eighty--firm and active too. Who has not seen the young lid close in pain, The young knee tremble, and the young heart sink, And age, old age, encourage and support, Even as the tree stands, when the buds are nipped, Tenacious 'till they would fall off, --and then Bearing the loss!--I've wandered from the theme -- Why should I not? "My heart is in the coffin," Long shall I "pause till it come back to me." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BRIGHT SUN AFTER HEAVY SNOW by JANE KENYON SNOW FALLING THROUGH FOG by WILLIAM MATTHEWS THE SNOW FAIRY by CLAUDE MCKAY NOT ONLY ESKIMOS by LISEL MUELLER TO A FRIEND by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |
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