New-York daily tribune., 1866-02-22


Unwarmed by any sunset light
The gray day darkened into night.
A night made hoary with the swarm
And whiTl- dance Of the binding storm,
As zigzag watering 10 ana iro
Crossed and rccrossed the winged snow:
And ere the early bedtime came
The white drift piled the window'frame.
And through the glass the clotles.line posts
Looked In like tall and shoeted ghosts.
So al night long the storm roared on;
The morning broke without q sun;
In tiny sphcrule traced with lines
Of Mature geOmftTlc signs,
In starry fake. and pellicle.
All day the hoary meteor fell;
And when the second morning shone,
We looked upon a world unknown,
On nothing could call our own
Around the cisteaing wonder bent.
The blue walls OF tho irInanent,
No cloud above. no earth below
a universe Of sky and snow
The old familiar sights Of ours
Took mary elous shapes strange donnes anu ,o"cis
Rose up wh ere sty or cOrn.crib stood,
Or garden wall or belt Of wood ,
A smooth white mound the brush'pile showed,
A fenceloss drift what once was roid
The post an old man sat
With loose. flung coat and high cooked bat;
The well lourb had Chinese root'
And even the long sweep. high hooi,
In its slant splondor, seemed TO tel
of PIsas leaning miracle.
The melody Of tho following lines may almost Do
described as frozen music
All day the gusty north. wind bore
Tie loosening drift its breath before
Low ercling round It's southern zone
The sun through dazzling snow mist sbones
No bell the hush Of silence broke,
No neighborIng chimney's social smoke
Curled over woods OF snoW-h hung OAK
4 solitude made more intense
By dreary voiced elements,
The shrcking Of the mindless wind
The moaning tree bouehs swaying blind,
And on the glass the unneaning beat
OF ghostly inger.tips oi hleet
Bevond the circle Of our hearth
No welcome sound OF toll or mrt1
Unbound the spell. and testified
OF human life aud thought outside.
We minded that the sharpest ear
The buried broOklet could not hear,
The music of whose Iquid up
Had been To us cOmpanionship,
And in our lonely life. had grown
To baye an almost human tone.
As night drew on, and from the crest
OF wooded kn0ls that ridged the west,
The sun, n snow blown traveller SANK
From sight beneath the smotherng bank,
We piled, with care Onr nightly stack
OF wood against the chimney back
The oaken log green. huge and tinck,
And on its top the stout back stick;
Tie knotty fOrestick laid apart,
And filled between with curions art
The ragged brush; then. lowering near,
we Wewatched the fret red blaze appear.
Heard the sharp crackle caught the glean
On whitewashed wall and segging beam
Until the old rude.furnshed room
Bnrs, hower.like. into rosy bloom;
While radiant with "a mimic flame
Outsile the sparkling drift became
And through the bare boughed llactree
Our own warm hearth seemed blazing free.
The crane and pendent trammels showed.
The Turks heads on the andIrons glowedi
While childish fancy. prompt to tell
The meaning Of the miracle.
WHISPERED The old lyme &" Under ne tree,
UAea IRE outdoors burns merriig
TAere The uitehes are making ted.'
Here ia little sketch Of an interior Of which no
Flemish painting could surpass the exactness.
Shut in from all the world without,
we sat the clean winged hearth about.
Content 70 let the north wind roar
In baied rage at pane and door.
While the red logs before US beat
The st.hne back with ttopc heatj
And ever, when "a louder blast
Shook beam and rafter as 10 passed.
The nerrcr up its roaring draught
The great throat Of the chimney laughed.
The house.dog on his paws outspread
Laid 10 the fIe his drovsy head
The cats dark silhouette on the wall.
4 co1chant tigers seemed 10 iall
And for the Winter hrcside meet.
Between the andirons' straddling feet
The mug of cider simmered slow,
The al pies sputtercd IN arow,
And close at hand the basket stood
Witt, nuts from brown OctObers wood.
We must make room for the portrait of an newt
able character, a specimen Of whom is always TO be
found in a rural village, AMI often in "tho best
regulated families"
Opr uuce innocent Of books.
Bnt rich IN lore of fields and brook,
The ancient teachers never dumb
OF Natures unhoused Dceum.
In moons and tides and weather wise
lie read the clouds az prophecies
And foul OF fair could we'll divine.
Nv many an occult hint and sign.
Holding the cunning wardedk keys
10 all tho wOodcraft mysteries;
Himself to Nataro heart 30 near
That all her voices in bis ear
or beast or Drd had meanings clear.
Like Apollonius Of old,
Who knew the tales the sparrows told.
Or Hernes, who interpreted
What the sage cranes Of Nius said;
A simple gnleless. chlldllke man,
| Content TO live where life began;
Strong only on hi. native grounds.
Tho little world OF sights and sounds
Whose girdle was the parish bounds,
Whereof his fondy partial pride
The common features magnfed
| As Surrey hills ia mountains grew
| In White of Selborne loving view
| NE tod how teal and loon lie slot