Chapter 1 of 45

PICTURES IN THE FIRE

  The wind croons under the icicled eaves—
    Croons and mutters a wordless song,
  And the old elm chafes its skeleton leaves
    Against the windows all night long.

  Under the spectral garden wall,
    The drifts creep steadily high and higher
  And the lamp in the cottage lattice small
    Twinkles and winks like an eye of fire.

  But I see a vision of summer skies
    Growing out of the embers red,
  Under the lids of my half-shut eyes,
    With my arms crossed idly under my head.

  I see a stile, and a roadside lime,
    With buttercups growing about its feet,
  And a footpath winding a sinuous line
    In and out of the billowy wheat.

  For long ago in the summer noons,
    Under the shade of that trysting tree,
  My love brought wheat ears and clover blooms,
    And vows that were sweeter than both, to me.

  Reading the "Times" in his easy chair,
    With his slippered feet on the fender bright,
  Little, I wot, he dreams how fair
    Are the pictures I see in the fire to night.

  Still the wind pipes under the serried spears
    Of frozen boughs a desolate rhyme,
  But I hear the rustle of golden ears,
    And in my heart it is summer time.