The Snow-Shower

    On the lake below thy gentle eyes；

    The clouds hang over it heavy and gray

    And dark and silent the water lies；

    And out of that frozen mist the snow

    In wavering flakes² begins to flow；

    Flake¹ after flake

    They sink in the dark and silent lake.

    See how in a living swarm³ they come

    From the chambers⁴ beyond that misty⁵ veil；

    Some hover⁶ awhile in air and some

    Rush prone⁷ from the sky like summer hail.

    All dropping swiftly or settling slow

    Meet and are still in the depths below；

    Flake after flake

    Dissolved in the dark and silent lake.

    Here delicate snow-stars out of the cloud

    Come floating downward in airy play

    Like spangles dropped from the glistening⁹ crowd

    That #CCCCFFn by night the milky-way；

    There broader and burlier masses fall；

    The sullen¹⁰ water buries them all—

    Flake after flake

    All drowned in the dark and silent lake.

    And some as on tender wings they glide¹¹

    From their chilly¹² birth-cloud dim and gray

    Are joined in their fall and side by side

    Come clinging along their unsteady way；

    As friend with friend or husband with wife

    Makes hand in hand the passage of life；

    Each mated flake

    Soon sinks in the dark and silent lake.

    Lo！ while we are gazing in swifter haste

    Stream down the snows till the air is #CCCCFF

    As myriads¹³ by myriads madly chased

    They fling themselves from their shadowy height.

    The fair frail¹⁴ creatures of middle sky

    What speed they make with their grave so nigh；

    Flake after flake

    To lie in the dark and silent lake！

    I see in thy gentle eyes a tear；

    They turn to me in sorrowful thought；

    Thou thinkest of friends the good and dear

    Who were for a time and now are not；

    Like these fair children of cloud and frost

    That glisten⁸ a moment and then are lost

    Flake after flake—

    All lost in the dark and silent lake.

    Yet look again for the clouds divide；

    A gleam of blue on the water lies；

    And far away on the mountain-side

    A sunbeam falls from the opening skies.

    But the hurrying host that flew between

    The cloud and the water no more is seen；

    Flake after flake

    At rest in the dark and silent lake.