THE FIRST SNOWFALL
The snow had begun in the gloaming,
And busily all the night
Had been heaping fields and highway
With a silence deep and white.
Every pine and fir and hemlock
Wore ermine too dear for an earl,
And the poorest twig on the elm tree
Was ridged inch deep with pearl.
From sheds new roofed with Carrara
Came chanticleer’s muffled crow,
The stiff rails were softened to swan’s-down
And still fluttered down the snow.
I stood and watched by the window
That noiseless work of the sky,
And the sudden flurries of snowbirds,
Like brown leaves whirling by.