VERSES SUGGESTED BY ITS APPEARANCE. 223 



The sun in golden glories came. 



And shot his glancing ray 

 Across the woods, and o'er the fields. 



With hoar-frost glittering gay. 



That lovely, pearly, brilliant frost, 



The landscape overspread, 

 Like cold and fleeting beauties, which 



Adorn the youthful dead. 



In every field each blade of grass, 



On every tree each spray, 

 Was with fantastic garlands hung. 



As for some festal day. 



And yet as numberless and bright. 



And beautifully placed. 

 As though Titania's fairy train, 



The fading leaves had graced. 



WTiat could they be ? I paused to gaze, 



And soon delighted found. 

 They were the gossamer's light threads, 



With ice encrusted round. 



That thread was like the poet's thought. 



The child of sunny hours, 

 Wliich often is by ice conceal'd, 



Or swept away by showers. 



The icicles which clustered round 



That graceful, fragile thread. 

 Were brilliant iis an infant's dream, — 



Pure as the sainted dead. 



They were like human loves, which hang 



By links as frail and light, 

 A breath may rend them, and, alas! 



They ne'er can reunite. 



