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