Classic Poem

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 begins to flow;
Flake after flake
They sink in the dark and silent lake.

See how in a living swarm they come
— From the chambers beyond that misty veil;
Some hover in air awhile, and some
— Rush prone 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 crowd
— That whiten by night the Milky Way;
There broader and burlier masses fall;
The sullen water buries them all, —
Flake after flake, —
All drowned in the dark and silent lake.

And some, as on tender wings they glide
— From their chilly 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 white,
As, myriads by myriads madly chased,
— They fling themselves from their shadowy height.
The fair, frail 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 a moment and then are lost, —
Flake after flake, —
All lost in the dark and silent lake.

Yet look again, for the clouds divide;
— 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.