名人诗歌|The Snow-Shower

STAND here by my side and turn I pray

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 flakes^{2 begins to flow；}

Flake^{1 after flake}

They sink in the dark and silent lake.

See how in a living swarm^{3 they come}

From the chambers^{4 beyond that misty5 veil；}

Some hover^{6 awhile in air and some}

Rush prone^{7 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 glistening^{9 crowd}

That #CCCCFFn by night the milky-way；

There broader and burlier masses fall；

The sullen^{10 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 chilly^{12 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 myriads^{13 by myriads madly chased}

They fling themselves from their shadowy height.

The fair frail^{14 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 glisten^{8 a moment and then are lost}

Flake after flake

All lost in the dark and silent lake.

Yet look again for the clouds pide；

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.