University of Virginia Library


25

IN WINTER NIGHT.

We walk in the Winter wind to-night;
Our hearts have wings, we have footsteps light;
The stars of home in our breasts arise—
The window-stars shine into our eyes.
The gaslights stoop and flare in the wind,
The flying snow makes the long street blind;
Our faces warm with fireside glow—
Our hearth-fires dance at home, we know.
Hark to the feet that past us move,
Echoes of hapless hearts above!
Faces come gleaming into our own
And vanish;—we hear the feet alone.
No glamour of firelight, sweet and warm,
Defends these walkers in the storm;—
In Winter wind, through the icy street,
Ah, hopeless hearts! ah, homeless feet!