A July ghost, aghast at the strange winter,

Wonders, at burning noon, all summer-seeming,

How, like a sad thought buried in light [woven] words,

Winter, an alien presence, is ambushed here.

See from the fire-fountained noon there creep

Lazy yellow ardours towards pale evening,

Dragging the sun across the shell of thought;

A web threaded with fading fire;

Futile and fragile lure, a July ghost

Standing with feet of fire on banks of ice,