Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WINTER NIGHT, by GOTTFRIED KELLER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WINTER NIGHT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Not a wing was beating in the night
Last Line: In my mind it lingers evermore!


Not a wing was beating in the night,
Dazzling white and peaceful lay the snow,
Not a cloud hung o'er the starry light,
Frozen was the lake--all calm below.

There a tree was growing from the deep,
In the ice its crown was frozen fast;
And the mermaid climbed the branches steep,
Peering through the greenish ice at last.

There I stood upon the glassy sheet--
Glass that barred me from that depth so dark;
Well I could, beneath my very feet,
All her white and wondrous beauty mark.

At the hard, hard roof, from place to place,
Still she gropes, from stitled anguish sore;
I shall not forget that dusky face,
In my mind it lingers evermore!





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