A Sicilian Story With Diego de Montilla, and Other Poems. By Barry Cornwall [i.e. Bryan Waller Procter]. Second Edition |
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WINTER. |
 | A Sicilian Story |  |
174
WINTER.
This is the eldest of the seasons: heMoves not like Spring with gradual step, nor grows
From bud to beauty, but with all his snows
Comes down at once in hoar antiquity.
No rains nor loud proclaiming tempests flee
Before him, nor unto his time belong
The suns of Summer, nor the charms of song,
That with May's gentle smiles so well agree.
But he, made perfect in his birth-day cloud,
Starts into sudden life with scarce a sound,
And with a gentle footstep prints the ground,
As tho' to cheat man's ear; yet while he stays
He seems as 'twere to prompt our merriest days,
And bid the dance and joke be long and loud.
| A Sicilian Story | |