DECEMBER

by: Christopher Cranch (1813-1892)

O more the scarlet maples flash and burn

Their beacon-fires from hilltop and from plain;

The meadow-grasses and the woodland fern

In the bleak woods lie withered once again.

 

The trees stand bare, and bare each stony scar

Upon the cliffs; half frozen glide the rills;

The steel-blue river like a scimitar

Lies cold and curved between the dusky hills.

 

Over the upland farm I take my walk,

And miss the flaunting flocks of golden-rod;

Each autumn flower a dry and leafless stalk,

Each mossy field a track of frozen sod.

 

I hear no more the robin's summer song

Through the gray network of the wintry woods;

Only the cawing crows that all day long

Clamor about the windy solitudes.

 

Like agate stones upon earth's frozen breast,

The little pools of ice lie round and still;

While sullen clouds shut downward east and west

In marble ridges stretched from hill to hill.

 

Come once again, O southern wind,--once more

Come with thy wet wings flapping at my pane;

Ere snow-drifts pile their mounds about my door,

One parting dream of summer bring again.

 

Ah, no! I hear the windows rattle fast;

I see the first flakes of gathering snow,

That dance and whirl before the northern blast.

No countermand the march of days can know.

 

December drops the weak, relenting tear,

By our fond summer sympathies ensnared;

Nor from the perfect circle of the year

Can even winter's crystal gems be spared.

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