ARCADIAN WINTER
by: Willa Cather (1873-1947)
- OE is me
to tell it thee,
- Winter winds in Arcady!
- Scattered is thy flock and fled
- From the glades where once it fed,
- And the snow lies drifted white
- In the bower of our delight,
- Where the beech threw gracious shade
- On the cheek of boy and maid:
- And the bitter blasts make roar
- Through the fleshless sycamore.
-
- White enchantment holds the spring,
- Where thou once wert wont to sing,
- And the cold hath cut to death
- Reeds melodious of thy breath.
- He, the rival of thy lyre,
- Nightingale with note of fire,
- Sings no more; but far away,
- From the windy hill-side gray,
- Calls the broken note forlorn
- Of an aged shepherd's horn.
-
- Still about the fire they tell
- How it long ago befell
- That a shepherd maid and lad
- Met and trembled and were glad;
- When the swift spring waters ran,
- And the wind to boy or man
- Brought the aching of his sires--
- Song and love and all desires.
- Ere the starry dogwoods fell
- They were lovers, so they tell.
-
- Woe is me to tell it thee,
- Winter winds in Arcady!
- Broken pipes and vows forgot,
- Scattered flocks returning not,
- Frozen brook and drifted hill,
- Ashen sun and song-birds still;
- Songs of summer and desire
- Crooned about the winter fire;
- Shepherd lads with silver hair,
- Shepherd maids no longer fair.
"Arcadian Winter" is reprinted
from April Twilights. Willa Cather. Boston: The Gorham
Press, 1903. |
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POEMS BY WILLA CATHER |
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