Summer and Winter
It was a bright and cheerful afternoon,Towards the end of the sunny month of June,When the north wind congregates in crowdsThe floating mountains of the silver cloudsFrom the horizon--and the stainless skyOpens beyond them like eternity.All things rejoiced beneath the sun; the weeds,The river, and the corn-fields, and the reeds;The willow leaves that glanced in the light breeze,And the firm foliage of the larger trees.
It was a winter such as when birds dieIn the deep forests; and the fishes lieStiffened in the translucent ice, which makesEven the mud and slime of the warm lakesA wrinkled clod as hard as brick; and when,Among their children, comfortable menGather about great fires, and yet feel cold:Alas, then, for the homeless beggar old!
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