Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WINTER, by MIRIAM DEL BANCO


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WINTER, by                    
First Line: A glittering mantle of spotless white
Last Line: And the warm, sweet spring-tide into the heart.
Subject(s): Seasons; Snow; Winter


A glittering mantle of spotless white
Covers the stains of earth away;
The keen wind moans through the leafless trees,
And the naked branches toss and sway;
The snow lies drifted on every side,
And sheets of glittering ice lie spread
O'er the laughing brook and the chattering rill
And the mirrored depth of the lake's blue bed.

The ivy writhes at the touch of the blast,
That mutters some secret, strange and wild,
To the shuddering elm; then dies away
And sobs in sleep like a troubled child;
The sky is grey, and the thick, dark clouds
Seem to be ghosts of the shades of night;
They strangle each beam that would glimmer through,
And catch up each wandering ray of light.

And I lie and dream of the purling brook,
That twined like a bank of silver sheen
In the emerald bounds of its mossy banks,
With lilies, like pearls, ever set between;
Of cows that grazed on the clover bloom;
Of rich green meadows; of buzzing bees;
Of the faint far tinkle of shepherd bells;
Of the songs of breezes among the trees.

And I long again for the summer days—
Long to roam, like a child at will,
And pick the cowslips from off the mead,
And chase the butterflies over the hill;
Long to sweep backward the earth's white shroud,
To fling the grey drifts of the sky apart,
To let the sunshine stream over the earth,
And the warm, sweet spring-tide into the heart.





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