Poem.

SNOW-FLAKES

Out of the bosom of the Air,

     Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,

Over the woodlands brown and bare,

     Over the harvest-fields forsaken,

           Silent, and soft, and slow

           Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take

     Suddenly shape in some divine expression,

Even as the troubled heart doth make

     In the white countenance confession,

           The troubled sky reveals

           The grief it feels.

This is the poem of the air,

     Slowly in silent syllables recorded;

This is the secret of despair,

     Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,

           Now whispered and revealed

To wood and field.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Time to walk forth ...