Classic Poem

Robed like an abbess
The snowy earth lies,
While the red sundown
Fades out of the skies.
Up walks the evening
Veiled like a nun,
Telling her starry beads
One by one.

Where like the billows
The shadowy hills lie,
Like a mast the great pine swings
Against the bright sky.
Down in the valley
The distant lights quiver,
Gilding the hard-frozen
Face of the river.

When o'er the hilltops
The moon pours her ray,
Like shadows the skaters
Skirr wildly away;
Whirling and gliding,
Like summer-clouds fleet,
They flash the white lightning
From glittering feet.

The icicles hang
On the front of the falls,
Like mute horns of silver
On shadowy walls;
Horns that the wild huntsman
Spring shall awake,
Down flinging the loud blast
Toward river and lake!