Watching the Snow

O SNOW! flying hither,And hurrying thither,Here, there, through the air,—you never care whither,—Do you see me here sitting,A-knitting, a-knitting,And wishing myself with you breezily flitting,Like any wild elf?

Lo! light as a feather,The merry flakes gatherIn rifts and in drifts, glad enough of cold weather;Gay throngs interlacing,On the slant roofs embracing,They slip and they fall! down, down they are racing,I after them all!

One large flake advances;'T is a white steed that prances;At the bits as he flits, how he foams, like my fancies!Up softly I sidleFrom where I sit idle,—I snatch, as it flies, at the gossamer bridle,—I am mounted, I rise!

Away we are bounding,No hoof-note resounding,Still as light is our flight through the armies surrounding;No murmur, no rustling,Though millions are jostling;A host is in camp, but you heard neither bustlingNor bugle, nor tramp.

Yet the truce-flag is lifted;Unfurled it lies driftedOver hill, over rill, where its snow could be sifted;And now I'm returningTo parley concerningThe beautiful cause that awakened my yearning,—The trouble that was.

Ho!ho! a swift fairy,—A pearl-shallop airy!I am caught, quick as thought! fleece-muffled and hairy,Her grim boatman tightensHis rough grasp, and frightensMe sore, as we sail to the east, where it lightens,On waves of the gale.

White, dimpled, and winning,The fairy sits spinning,From her hair, floating fair, coils of cable beginning,Her shallop to tetherIn stress of bleak weather,While the boatman and I, wrapped in ermine together,Drift on through the sky.

Stay! the boat is upsetting!My fairy, forgettingHer coil and her toil, to escape from a wetting,Has now the one notion:Below boils the ocean!I scream,—I am heard,—up, in arrowy motion,I am borne by a bird;—

A gray eagle!—overThe seas flies the rover;And I ride as his guide, a new world to discover.He bears me on, steady,Through whirlwind and eddy;I cling to his neck, and he ever is readyTo pause at my beck.

White doves through the etherCome flocking together:How they crowd to me, proud if I smooth one soft feather!O what is the matter?They startle,—they scatter!On the wet window-pane hear my eagle’s claws clatter!—The snow’s turned to rain!