I never shall love the snow again <br />Since Maurice died: <br />With corniced drift it blocked the lane, <br />And sheeted in a desolate plain <br />The country side. <br /> <br />The trees with silvery rime bedight <br />Their branches bare. <br />By day no sun appeared; by night <br />The hidden moon shed thievish light <br />In the misty air. <br /> <br />We fed the birds that flew around <br />In flocks to be fed: <br />No shelter in holly or brake they found, <br />The speckled thrush on the frozen ground <br />Lay frozen and dead. <br /> <br /> <br />We skated on stream and pond; we cut <br />The crinching snow <br />To Doric temple or Arctic hut; <br />We laughed and sang at nightfall, shut <br />By the fireside glow. <br /> <br />Yet grudged we our keen delights before <br />Maurice should come. <br />We said, 'In-door or out-of-door <br />We shall love life for a month or more, <br />When he is home.' <br /> <br />They brought him home; 'twas two days late <br />For Christmas Day: <br />Wrapped in white, in solemn state, <br />A flower in his hand, all still and straight <br />Our Maurice lay. <br /> <br />And two days ere the year outgave <br />We laid him low. <br />The best of us truly were not brave, <br />When we laid Maurice down in his grave <br />Under the snow.<br /><br />Robert Seymour Bridges<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-shall-never-love-the-snow-again/
