The poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich

These winter nights, against my window-pane
Nature with busy pencil draws designs
Of ferns and blossoms and fine spray of pines,
Oak-leaf and acorn and fantastic vines,

Which she will shape when summer comes again—
Quaint arabesques in argent, flat and cold,
Like curious Chinese etchings. ... By and by
(I in my leafy garden as of old)
These frosty fantasies shall charm my eye
In azure, damask, emerald, and gold.

University of Virginia Library

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