Gone is the long, long winter night; <br />Look, my beloved one! <br />How glorious, through his depths of light, <br />Rolls the majestic sun! <br />The willows, waked from winter's death, <br />Give out a fragrance like thy breath-- <br />The summer is begun! <br /> <br />Ay, 'tis the long bright summer day: <br />Hark, to that mighty crash! <br />The loosened ice-ridge breaks away-- <br />The smitten waters flash. <br />Seaward the glittering mountain rides, <br />While, down its green translucent sides, <br />The foamy torrents dash. <br /> <br />See, love, my boat is moored for thee, <br />By ocean's weedy floor-- <br />The petrel does not skim the sea <br />More swiftly than my oar. <br />We'll go, where, on the rocky isles, <br />Her eggs the screaming sea-fowl piles <br />Beside the pebbly shore. <br /> <br />Or, bide thou where the poppy blows, <br />With wind-flowers frail and fair, <br />While I, upon his isle of snows, <br />Seek and defy the bear. <br />Fierce though he be, and huge of frame, <br />This arm his savage strength shall tame, <br />And drag him from his lair. <br /> <br />When crimson sky and flamy cloud <br />Bespeak the summer o'er, <br />And the dead valleys wear a shroud <br />Of snows that melt no more, <br />I'll build of ice thy winter home, <br />With glistening walls and glassy dome, <br />And spread with skins the floor. <br /> <br />The white fox by thy couch shall play; <br />And, from the frozen skies, <br />The meteors of a mimic day <br />Shall flash upon thine eyes. <br />And I--for such thy vow--meanwhile <br />Shall hear thy voice and see thy smile, <br />Till that long midnight flies.<br /><br />William Cullen Bryant<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-arctic-lover/
