Vii

BERKSHIRE NOTES

Winter Sun

(Lenox)

There was a bush with scarlet berries And there were hemlocks heaped with snow; With a sound like surf on long sea-beaches They took the wind and let it go.

The hills were shining in their samite, Fold after fold they flowed away-- “Let come what may,” your eyes were saying, “At least we two have had to-day.”

A December Day

Dawn turned on her purple pillow And late, late came the winter day, Snow was curved to the boughs of the willow, The sunless world was white and grey.

At noon we heard a blue-jay scolding, At five the last thin light was lost From snow-banked windows faintly holding The feathery filigree of frost.

February Twilight

I stood beside a hill Smooth with new-laid snow, A single star looked out From the cold evening glow.

There was no other creature That saw what I could see-- I stood and watched the evening star As long as it watched me.

“I Have Seen the Spring”

Nothing is new, I have seen the spring too often; There have been other plum-trees white as this one Like a silvery cloud tethered beside the road, I have been waked from sleep too many times By birds at dawn boasting their love is beautiful. The grass-blades gleam in the wind, nothing is changed. Nothing is lost, it is all as it used to be, Unopened lilacs are still as deep a purple, The boughs of the elm are dancing still in a veil of tiny leaves, Nothing is lost but a few years from my life.

Wind Elegy