Heart's-Ease
SOUTHWARD still the sun is slanting day by day,
Skies that brim with gold and azure slowly change;
Beauty waxes cold and dim and cannot stay,
Into tone and tint steals something ill and strange.
Threat of evil finds its way to every ear,
Lurks in light and shade and sounds in every breath;
From the pathless snow-fields comes a warning drear,
And the shuddering north-wind carries news of death.
Stealthy step of Winter near and nearer draws:
Locking earth beneath him, terrible with might,
Strides he from the icy zone without a pause,
Swift and sure and fierce, with ready hand to smite.
Dearest, when without the door he threatening stands,
Having rendered desolate the fair green earth,
And sent her happy birds to sunnier lands,
And choked with sullen snows her summer mirth,
We shall sit together, you and I, once more,
Warm and quiet, shut away from storm and cold;
We shall smile to hear him blustering at the door,
While the room glows with the firelight’s ruddy gold.
How safe my heart keeps every memory sweet,
Holding still your picture, as you used to sit,
Ever lovely, full of grace from head to feet,
With that heap of snowy wool I watched you knit;
With the lamplight falling on your cloudy hair —
On the rich, loose bands of brown, so soft to touch;
On the silken knot of rose you used to wear,
On the thoughtful little face I love so much.
You remember, when aloud I read to you,
Sometimes silence intervened. You would not move,
But in your radiant cheek the blushes grew,
For you knew I paused to gaze at you, my love!
Paused to realize my heaven, till with kind,
Clear and questioning gray eyes you sought my face.
What a look! Its kindling glory struck me blind;
'T was a splendor that illumined all the place.
What to us are Winter’s blows and hate and wrath?
And what matter that the green earth’s bloom is fled?
There has been immortal summer in our path
All the happy, happy years since we were wed.
